Running the Bases
by Kopykat Kakashi
Summary: A girl from Nishiura's High School newspaper intrudes upon the team and tries to dig up dirt. Ch 21: Tajima's Date
1. The Fan in the Stands

_Author's Notes: This is based on Ookiku Furikabutte created by Higuchi Asa, written as if it were a high school romance rather than a sports competition series. I do not own the OoFuri characters, but I do own my OCs for whatever that's worth which is nothing. Please visit my Ookiku forum for status updates, character discussion, baseball questions, etc._

_There are few females in the series and they have minor roles, so the main female lead here is an original character, Sakai Risa_ _(first name: Risa, _理佐, "reason, assistant")_ from the school newspaper. If you're wary of OC's, I promise I'm good with them. The chars will normally be called by their surname except Risa. _

_**RUNNING THE BASES**_

_**PART I – FIRST BASE**_

_**Chapter 1: A Fan in the Stands**_

Mihashi noticed her first, since he stumbled out first onto the field, trying to escape from another one of Abe's fits of temper. Her presence took him by surprise. Very few people, and even fewer girls, ever attended their practices, which were usually early in the morning, like now, or right after school until very late. He looked at her, then back at Abe, then back at her, then back at Abe, his head twisting back and forth, his mousey brown hair flipping side to side, his fishlike mouth trying to form words to call out to his teammates.

Mihashi's strange actions, coupled by the stuttering of Abe's name, angered the irascible catcher even more.

"What's the matter with you? Why are you moving your head like that? You'll pull a neck muscle!" Abe scolded, then realized that Mihashi was looking at something, or someone out in the stands. "What are you looking at?" the catcher in full gear asked as he climbed onto the field from the dugout. Abe followed the course of Mihashi's continuous head rotation. Then he took off his face mask to get a better look.

There was a girl in the stands. She sat near the dugout, along the first baseline, holding an obsolete film camera with a long telephoto lens, to her eye. Since school uniforms were not required at their public school, it was not obvious whether she was from Nishiura.

'_A spy!' _Abe immediately jumped to the conclusion based on his own tendency to investigate other teams. '_She must have been sent by our next competitors. How audacious! In broad daylight. Soooo obvious. Idiot!_' he muttered to himself as he approached the stands, stomping across the damp earth.

She looked to be a first year, judging by her size and lack of an ample chest. Under the early morning sun, she wore a plain pink T-shirt covered by a red windbreaker jacket. Her T-shirt hung loosely over a long dark blue skirt, giving an impression of disorder, which was supported by the messiness of her hair, pulled back in a loose pony tail and barely secured with a barrette. She did not have bangs, which was just as well since her forehead was not high enough for bangs to be attractive.

She appeared to be taking pictures of them, without permission.

'Hey you! What do you think you're doing?" Abe barked. It didn't matter to him whether the spy was of the fairer sex. An enemy was an enemy and had to be stopped. He was ready to pick her up and throw her out on her can if necessary.

The girl lowered her camera and squinted at him. She picked up a steno pad from the bench, consulted it, and looked back at the catcher. "Abe, Takaya," she said, nonplussed. "Catcher, number two, bats and throws right. Played in the Senior league in high school." Then she frowned, picked up a pen from the bench and scribbled in her notepad.

"Hey! I asked what you're doing here. If you're spying on us, get out right now!" Abe threatened from below.

"I'm Sakai Risa from the school newspaper. They sent me over here to take some pictures, do some interviews, write an article. After beating Tosei, you guys are practically celebrities." She flashed a sarcastic smile.

Abe was not ready to give any ground on having unauthorized personnel during their practice. And he did not like her cool demeanor. "Doesn't matter. You don't have permission to be here," he said abruptly.

"Umm, you know, this is a public school, and I do attend class here, so I don't need permission to be here." She looked him squarely in the eyes.

"You do need permission to take our pictures," Abe insisted. Even though he knew they should be honored that the school paper thought them worthy of news, he felt he couldn't back down now, especially after accusing her of being a spy.

Meanwhile, back at the dugout, Abe's threats could be heard by everyone. His loud voice carried well in the morning stillness.

"Hanai, go over and see what's going on," Momoe ordered. She folded her arms under her pendulous bosom and stared out of the dugout. Unlike Abe, she was more curious than mad.

"Maybe she's a fan," Tajima suggested excitedly. His freckled face grinned stupidly. "I'll go over and offer her my autograph."

"Hold on. You're not famous yet." Momoe placed a firm hand on her third baseman's shoulder. She looked at the team captain and nodded her order again.

The girl was about to reply to Abe's last retort, when a tall, slender, but strongly built, boy with a crew cut jogged over. "Coach asked me to see what's going on here," Hanai explained to Abe.

"What's going on is your catcher is trying to suppress the freedom of the press! I'm here to write an article on your team and all I get are threats from this Neanderthal!" Even though the words were said in a raised voice, the girl seemed amused rather than angry.

As Hanai came closer he recognized her. He had seen her around at school, but she wasn't in his class and he didn't know her name, but that was good enough for him to decide she wasn't someone suspicious. "I'm sorry, please excuse us. I'll tell the Coach. I'm sure we'll do whatever we can to help. Thank you for supporting us," Hanai said politely rather than accusing her of stalking the players. He bowed respectfully before reporting back to Momoe.

Abe glared at the girl and followed Hanai back to the dugout. _'Reporters, paparazzi… they're the worst!'_ he growled to himself. But having a reporter here was not a complete surprise. After they beat Tosei, Mihashi was even mentioned in the high school baseball news. But still…

'_Baseball players, sports stars, dumb jocks…they're the worst!_' Risa muttered to herself. '_Why did I get stuck with this assignment?_'

* * *

_Author's notes: Not sure how long this will be, but Reviews are greatly appreciated and help me write more!_


	2. Team Interviews Momoe

_Author's Notes: The purpose of these series of interview is to give the reader some background of the chars which you may know from the manga or anime already, but it's nice to have a refresher._ _Also, I know nothing of Japanese pro baseball teams so I'm using some player names and teams from "One Outs" another good baseball manga/anime._

_**Team Interviews - Momoe**_

"Eh, so she's from the school paper," Momoe mused after Hanai's report. "You guys are now famous! You'll have to live up to that - extended practice today!"

The ten members of the team all groaned in unison. Before their match with Tosei, they had been practicing from dawn until school opened, then again after school until 9PM. Momoe cut back the hours after their win, but now it seemed she was all riled up again.

Before anyone had a chance to protest, though no one would in fear of Momoe's mighty hands, a voice called out: "Excuse me! Excuse me! Coach!"

Momoe came out of the dugout and found the reporter girl waving at her from the stands. "Hi, I'm Sakai Risa from the school paper. I hope you don't mind me taking some pictures. I'd like to interview you, if you're not busy right now," she shouted.

"Me?" Momoe's face turned a shade redder.

"You're famous now, Momokan! Go Coach go!" cheered her team.

"All right you guys. You know the routine. Go!" Momoe ordered, before taking a deep breath in preparation for her interview. She walked out of the dugout and climbed up to sit amiably by the girl in the red jacket. Momoe quickly appraised her interviewer as the girl flipped through her notebook, looking through her previous notes. She did not look like she was happy to be here at 6:30 in the morning. But she was here and that meant something - she was dedicated to her work.

And there was something about her that reminded Momoe of herself at the same age. Maybe it was her simple clothes, her seemingly lack of attention to her looks. Her hair looked like it had never been permed, colored, or conditioned. In fact, it looked like it needed to be brushed - very badly.

"I'm sorry about taking photos without your permission." The girl smiled at Momoe, but she didn't sound sorry at all. "I wanted to get some candid shots before they realized I was a reporter," she explained.

"No problem," Momoe replied. "I have to apologize for our catcher. He has a tendency to fly off the handle; pun intended, ha-ha." Momoe laughed nervously. Why did this fifteen-sixteen-year-old girl make her nervous, when she was able to control a bunch of hormonally challenged teenage boys? Maybe she was just not good with interviews.

"Umm, okay, let's start," said the newbie reporter. "I collected some general background information, but I'd like you to confirm it."

Momoe nodded, wondering what her sources were.

"I have here that you graduated from Nishiura five years ago."

Momoe nodded guardedly. She was rather protective of her age.

"Were you on the girl's softball team back then?"

"Well, I was on the softball team back in middle school. I was the manager of the baseball team while I was here. That was when we used a soft baseball."

"Ah, yes, I have here that Nishiura switched to hard balls this year. Was that your doing?"

"Yes, I recommended it to our faculty advisor."

"That's Shiga-sensei, the math teacher?"

Momoe nodded again. Even though this was her chance to advertise for players, to highlight her team, to give them all credit, she felt terribly uncomfortable answering questions. What if she gave out too much information? Could it be relayed to other schools and the information used against her team? Was she being as paranoid as Abe?

"Why did you decide to go hardball?"

"I wanted to be able to compete, really compete." Momoe wanted to be the coach of a respectable baseball team. Soft baseball teams were laughed at by the hard ball teams.

"So that means you're a big baseball fan."

"Of course."

"What's your favorite pro team?"

"Ah well, I grew up watching the Lycaons."

"So you favor underdogs?"

"I guess you can say that," Momoe replied. The girl seemed to be interested by her underdog preference.

"Okay, so you were the baseball manager back then. What did you do?"

"Oh, you know, the usual manager stuff like providing drinks and towels."

"Please don't be modest. I've heard you have good baseball skills, too."

"Ah, well, I did help out. We were short on members so I took part in the practices." Momoe wondered again what kind of research this reporter already had on her and her team. Did she talk to the parents? Fans? Did she have access to school records?

"Well, looks like you have the experience and motivation to form a solid team, even if it's just their first year. I have to say, they were very impressive. Tell me, how were you able to beat Tosei? What did you do to prepare for them?" The girl seemed sincerely curious.

But Momoe was wary. "I'm sorry, I can't give away trade secrets. But I can tell you we practiced very, very hard and we're lucky to have some good experienced players."

"All right, I can understand that. Why don't you just tell me a bit about the team members, off the record, just so I know how to approach them during our interviews, to make them feel more comfortable. I'm sure they must be nervous about their first interview, even if it's just for the school paper."

'_I should be able to answer something like that. And she seems like she's being considerate,_' Momoe thought to herself. "Okay, well, first there's our pitcher, Mihashi…"

Momoe gave the reporter a quick rundown of her players. Most of the information it seemed she already knew since she didn't write much down on her notepad as Momoe spoke. After she was done, the reporter flipped through her notes again.

"I've heard you're the one who paid for the team's supplies and new equipment, above the usual allowance for clubs."

"Yes, but it's no big deal. I mean, I worked a bunch of part time jobs and saved some money, so I had to do something with it." Momoe didn't like to advertise that she spent much of her savings on the new ball machine, uniforms, balls, and even food. It was something she wanted to do and she did not want anyone thinking they owed her something or that she was some kind of martyr. She just loved baseball, a lot.

"Ever heard of opening an IRA account?" the girl asked with a cynical raise of her right eyebrow.

"Eh?"

"A retirement account," the girl explained.

"Oh, well, that's a long way off. It's better to put it to good use now." Now it seemed the girl was judging her. She seemed to disapprove of Momoe instead of being impressed by her dedication and largesse.

"Hmm," the girl said as she wrote in her notepad. It seemed she was writing a lot more than her response, which made Momoe even more nervous.

"You look pretty tall for a Japanese woman. How tall are you?" The reporter suddenly switched directions. This was not about baseball at all. But Momoe took the bait.

"I'm about 5 feet 5 inches."

"Has it been tough for you to find a boy friend?"

"Huh? How is that relevant?" Momoe felt her face and ears turning very red, more than they ever had during an exciting game.

"I mean, you're spending all your money on a bunch of high school brats. You're here for practice from dawn till nightfall. I don't see a ring on your finger. You probably have no husband or child or any kind of social life. Why would a grown woman be so obsessed with high school baseball? Are you a lesbian?" the girl asked brusquely.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid this interview is at an end. I'm here to discuss baseball, not my personal life," Momoe managed to say between clenched teeth. She seriously wanted to grab the reporter's head and squeeze it like a pummelo.

The girl shrugged. "Fans are always more interested in personalities and private lives rather than the actual game. Sells more papers, too."

Momoe abruptly stood up and walked back toward the dugout; her face several shades redder than when she started. _'Reporters, tabloids, teenage girls, gossip…they're the worst!' _she growled to herself.

"Please ask your captain to see me next!" the reporter shouted to Momoe's back, as if she had said nothing wrong at all.

* * *


	3. Risa

_Author's Notes: OC's must have an angsty past! So here's a bit about Risa, with more angsty details in later chapters._

**_Chapter 3: Risa_**

Risa did not like getting up early. She also did not like sports. And most of all she did not like jocks.

The combination of the three put her in a very irritable mood. The assignment of covering the newbie baseball team fell to her because she stupidly raised her hand when the editor asked if anyone present knew anything about baseball. She had proudly raised her hand, because she wanted to show that even though she was a girl, she knew something about sports. She only knew about baseball in detail, and little about any other sport, because her two brothers were baseball fanatics and hogged the television set every time a pro game was on, so she was forced to watch.

The original reason why she paid attention to the games and learned the rules was just so that she could argue intelligently with her brothers and not feel left out at the dinner table. Why anyone found the game exciting was beyond her. Nine innings, six outs per inning, innumerable time outs, a full game easily took two to three hours, not to mention extra inning games. The worst were the low scoring game with nary a hit. Boring, boring, boring…

But no one else wanted to cover a bunch of first years, who were sure to lose in the first round, especially against Tosei. She figured it would be a one time assignment, no big deal, and it would be the first article that would be published with her byline. So she went to the Tosei game, and to everyone's shock, and to her dismay, Nishiura actually won! Granted, it was an exciting game, one of the best she had ever witnessed. During the game, even the steady rain didn't bother her. (It was difficult to take notes and keep her umbrella up the same time.) Afterwards, her editor wanted her to do an in depth follow-up with the manager and players. A full spread, a feature article, he insisted, with photographs and bios.

The newspaper deadline was coming up (it was a weekly paper), which meant no time for her to get everything done without getting up at dawn to be at the early practice. She figured she could interview most of the team today and then write up whatever notes she had. Then the film had to be developed, proofs made, prints selected, that would take another couple of days. So within four days, everything had to be ready for layout and off to the presses. It was a lot of work, but it was exciting and made her pulse race.

It would have been faster if she had a digital camera capable of zooming in, and with a fast shutter speed, but those were expensive. The best were the digital reflex cameras, completely out of her budget. The newspaper club had it on their wish list, but it was not a priority so the reporters and photographers were forced to rely on whatever equipment they each had. At least the club paid for film, and the darkroom was stocked with the processing chemicals and photo paper.

Risa had a good view of the dugout and with her 28-150mm zoom lens, she was able to capture a few good candid shots before she was noticed. There were several of the catcher beating up on the pitcher, number five running around half naked, and the coach, stoically trying to ignore the crazy antics.

The first thing that Risa noticed about the coach was her femininity. She had expected the stereotypical athletic dyke, not a beautiful young woman with boobs Playboy bunnies would envy. Momoe also had long black hair that reached past her back in two perfect braids.

Risa kept her own hair relatively short. Even though she habitually wore it pulled back in a pony tail, her hair was too short to be secured and came loose easily. If she had had hair like Momoe, some wild animal would surely have nested there.

How could anyone manage such luxuriously long hair, especially after a day out in the dusty field?

Then there was Momoe's bodacious bosom. Did she have implants? How could anyone be a decent athlete with those in the way? Wouldn't they put you off balance? At first she felt sure that Momoe must have been very popular in high school. Beautiful, athletic, knowledgeable about sports – every guy's fantasy. So why did it seem that the coach had no life other than with the team? Risa hadn't meant to put the poor woman on the defensive, but her reporter's instinct flashed and told her there was something about this woman's private life that was amiss.

Maybe she was being vindictive. In truth, Risa was envious of Momoe, of girls who were both beautiful and athletic, because she herself was not. Not even close.

Since grade school, Risa was always among the last to be picked for a team, any team, even an all girls' team. When a ball came at her, she would duck in fear. It didn't matter whether it was a volleyball or ping pong ball. Running a mile took her half an hour. There were ninety year old ladies who could speed walk faster than that. When she was young, she had admired those who had such skills to run, hit, catch, somersault, vault; those with strength, speed and flexibility.

But then she found that those who had such skills were overly proud of them and looked down upon those who were clumsy and spastic. Risa learned that jocks were also bullies, using their athletic skills to mask their lack of intelligence - where her skills excelled.

She could have gone to a better, more academically challenging school, but then she would have had more competition, more pressure. She had come to Nishiura, a no name public school, with one goal: to be the top student, the valedictorian, which would all but ensure her entrance to a top college with scholarships.

She thought how unfair it was that academic scholarships were so hard to come by, but just because you could throw a ball a great distance, you were entitled to free money. How easy it was to be an athlete. They were popular, born with natural talent, received loads of attention and lots of money. Professional athletes made more money than scientists and teachers, people who really contributed to the betterment of society.

They didn't know anything about working hard and using their brains. Athletes were arrogant bullies, useless parasites of society, who looked down on everyone else.

She really, really hated jocks.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Anyone realize how nice every one is in OoFuri? Except for the Mihoshi team, but they apologized to Mihashi in the end. Hatake his old catcher was a jerk, and Abe can be too, but overall everyone is so nice._


	4. Team Interviews Hanai

_Author's Notes: I suck at naming OC's so here's another name change. It's now __Sakai__ Risa, final._

_**CH 4: Team Interviews - Hanai**_

Coach Momoe was in quite a bad mood after her interview, made apparent by her yelling out, "Hanai, you're up!" and jerking her head at the girl in the stands; her long black braids whipped angrily about her.

A few of the players expressed disappointment, especially Tajima, that they were not called next, but on second thought, it made perfect sense since Hanai was the team captain. The team had unanimously elected him because of his intelligence, dependability and dedication. Someone like Abe was sure to piss off reporters, and none of the others were terribly bright or articulate enough under pressure.

"Right!" said Hanai in acknowledgement of his coach's order. He, too, felt a bit nervous about his first interview, especially in light of Momoe's sudden change in mood, but he also felt quite honored and was determined to do his best to represent himself and the team in a good light.

"Hanai Azusa, captain, number nine," he said, bowing before the girl who looked much smaller and younger than he did. The girl stared up at him; her brown eyes narrowed and squinted. For some reason, Hanai felt like saluting and giving out his student ID number.

"I know who you are," she finally said. "Take a seat." She nodded at the space next to her. "First, I'd just like to confirm some information I collected through my research. I have here that you were also the captain of your middle school team."

"Yes." Hanai nodded. "It's a great honor to be selected as captain by my current teammates."

"Oh? You mean the coach didn't select you? You were elected by your teammates? Well, that says a lot about how your coach runs things. I'm assuming it wasn't just a popularity contest."

"I…er…it was unanimous…I think," Hanai replied modestly, not sure what the reporter was implying.

"You have any siblings?" It was an abrupt change of topic.

"Yeah, uh, I have two younger sisters, twins."

"You take care of them? Help your parents out?"

"Yes, of course."

"Twins are a handful aren't they?"

Hanai nodded vigorously in agreement, recalling all the times he had to separate them from fighting and all the times they teamed up against him. "You wouldn't believe all the things I've had to put up with. Those two…" The term demon spawn was on the tip of his tongue, but Hanai was afraid if that made it into the papers and his parents found out…

"So that's the kind of experience that makes you a responsible captain," the reporter concluded, jotting down various notes.

"I've never thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess that's right." It was true, mediating between the twins, just like he had to do with his team members when they had disagreements. Being patient and helping them with homework, just like keeping his cool with Mihashi and helping some of the guys pass English. He was a big brother to nine kids!

"All right, so you guys beat Tosei. Did you really think you could do it going in?"

"We trained really hard with that intention. You can't win if you think you're going to lose."

The reporter nodded in approval at his standard type answer. "For a new team of first year students to beat last season's first place team is pretty amazing. You guys are stars in the making."

Hanai blushed slightly at the unexpected compliment and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Ah, well, we were pretty lucky. Can't say we're stars until we win a few more times."

"You bat fifth. Was that your usual lineup position?"

"No, I used to back fourth."

"The cleanup position? Hmm, does it bother you that you were demoted?"

"It wasn't a demotion!" Hanai said defensively. "We got to pick our positions."

"Really? The coach allowed you to choose your lineup positions? Base on what?"

"Well, uh, I scored second in the field of vision test. Tajima chose to bat fourth, so I ended up batting fifth."

"So, Tajima is better than you."

"No! Yes…I mean... I'm not sure how to answer that." Was this how all reporters worked? Tripping you up so you'd say something controversial? But she was just from the high school paper. Hanai could feel the heat in his face and ears. He didn't want anyone to know how he fell about Tajima, how inferior he felt. Was it so obvious that a stranger to the team could pick up his feelings so easily? He looked down at his clenched hands. Unlike Momoe, he did not have the confidence to just walk away.

_'Hah, gotcha. Your Achilles' heel. Pride comes before a fall,'_ Risa thought in satisfaction. But then she saw that the tall boy in front of her did not exhibit the self-assuredness she had come to expect from a jock. He was not angry at her questions, but rather embarrassed at his own weakness. She retracted her claws.

The girl's officious tone suddenly turned soft. "Actually, no answer is best. You should say, 'It doesn't matter. It's all for the good of the team.' Pat answers like that are best in difficult situations." She smiled at him.

"I…I understand." He nodded at her and straightened his posture. It seemed she meant to test their interview skills, good preparation for the future. He would handle it with aplomb.

"Okay, as captain, can you give me your impression of the players?"

Hanai carefully and diplomatically described the players, leaving out their idiosyncrasies and annoying habits. It was pretty much as Momoe had described so the reporter did not bother to write much down.

"So you're all one big happy family." It was a rhetorical question. Risa could tell from Hanai's hesitation that they were not._ 'Gotcha!'_ She just had to dig deeper and push the right buttons to find something interesting. "Please send in your Ace pitcher next," she ordered.

* * *

_Author's Notes: I've seen the anime and read all scanlations and know only a little beyond that. If anyone can fill me in or would like to discuss Oofuti, please contact me!_


	5. Team Interviews Mihashi

**_Chapter 5: Team Interview - Mihashi_**

"So what was she like?"

"Was she cute?"

"Is she available?"

The team pestered Hanai with questions when he returned from his interview, but he was still going over his answers in his head, wondering if she was going to write about his rivalry with Tajima. "Huh? Cute? I'm not sure. I didn't notice. All right, I guess."

Mizutani shook his head in exasperation. "Not noticing whether or not a girl is cute…are you gay or something?"

Suyama, Tajima, Oki, and Sakaeguchi had to restrain Hanai from pummeling Mizutani into the ground. Mizutani got about a ten second head start before Hanai broke free and began chasing him across the field. "MI-ZU-TA-NI! I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna rip your error prone arms from their sockets and stuff them right up your…"

So much for having the patience of a big brother.

As Hanai pinned Mizutani to the ground, ready to make good on his threat, he was reminded that there was a reporter still hanging around.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" the girl in the stands yelled. "Please send the Ace pitcher!"

The rest of the team looked around for Mihashi who had suddenly, mysteriously disappeared. Abe found him crouched down under the water fountain in the dugout. "Your turn, Ace! You better get used to doing interviews each time we win!" Abe grabbed Mihashi by the collar, dragged him out of the dugout, and threw him roughly into the stands. "And don't make us look bad! You're representing the entire team!" Abe warned before he went back to batting practice.

Risa was appalled at how Abe treated Mihashi. She watched as the scrawny looking boy tried to lift himself off the ground. She had never seen a jock like him before. He looked more like a bookworm than an athlete. No, that wasn't right either. He didn't look smart enough. He looked like a spineless jellyfish-amoeba primordial creature. "Are you all right?" she asked gently. She was afraid if she used her regular tone, he would suddenly melt away.

The boy made some noise that she took to mean he was fine.

"Come, sit up here." She patted the seat next to her and waited until he oozed into position.

The boy would not look at her. He kept his gaze on his feet. His whole body twitched involuntarily. He was literally jumping out of his skin.

"You're the Ace pitcher?" Her tone held a note of complete disbelief.

Mihashi moved his head enough to signal a nod.

"You're the one who beat Tosei?"

Mihashi nodded again, but this time he tried to form words. "I…I…No…No…It…It…w…was…b…be…cause…Abe…" was all Risa could make out.

This was the guy who held Tosei to four runs? He didn't look this wimpy on the mound from what she could recall. Part of her felt sorry for him. The other part wanted to shake him and yell at him to be more articulate. How could she do an interview when she couldn't understand the interviewee? Then it struck her. He was acting like a pledge being bullied by his fraternity brothers. She recognized all the signs, had seen them in herself.

She changed her tone completely - now she was the supportive fan, dripping with admiration. "You must be a great pitcher to hold Tosei back to just four runs. That's amazing for a first year pitcher's debut."

To her surprise, Mihashi shook his head and tears rolled down his cheeks. "N…No, no I'm not. It…It's only be…because…Abe's the c…catcher."

'_Okay,'_ Risa reasoned, _'I think he's saying that he's not that great a pitcher and he's crediting the catcher for his success.' _It was like pulling teeth. This interview was going to take at least three times longer than normal. This was not something she had expected at all. The pitcher was beyond shy, as Momoe and Hanai had implied. He was clinically phobic. That indicated a traumatic past. '_Gotcha!'_ her reporter's instinct flashed.

"You used to pitch for Mihoshi Academy Middle school?"

At the mention of Mihoshi, the boy looked like he shrank a few more inches.

"You were their Ace pitcher? What was your record?"

That was absolutely the wrong question as Mihashi started to cry in earnest.

"Hey, are you okay? Was it that bad there? Did they bully you?"

Mihashi shook his head. "M…m…my fault…l…I…lost…e…ry…g…game."

"You mean you pitched every game and lost every game? Didn't they have another pitcher?"

More moans and groans emanated from the boy's fishlike orifice. He was slumped so low, he was practically sliding off the seat. Risa made a note to follow up on this later and avoid the topic for now. She fished for a pack of tissues in her jacket and handed it over to Mihashi. She looked at her watch as he cleaned himself up. It was an hour before she needed to get ready for class and she hadn't had breakfast yet. Risa sighed and rummaged in her backpack, taking out a juice box and a sweet red bean bun.

After another look at the pathetic pitcher, she offered her breakfast to him. He looked as if he needed it more than her. The only part of him that looked well formed was his muscular pitching arm. The uniform hung over his small frame like a coat rack.

Mihashi had not eaten that morning except for the putrid protein drink that Momoe forced down his throat before practice. He was running late as usual and had forgotten to grab the lunchbag that his mother had left out for him. So it was with great appreciation and alacrity that he accepted Risa's gift of food, barely mumbling his thanks. Food always calmed him down and made him feel better.

_'She's really nice,'_ he thought. _'Not that scary at all.'_

To Risa's surprise, Mihashi literally shoved the entire bun in his mouth, swallowing it in one gulp. "Hey, careful, wouldn't want the team's Ace to choke," she admonished gently. "If you're that hungry, you can have this, too." Risa decided to sacrifice her lunch and offered Mihashi two salmon and sesame riceballs.

"I…I…sh… shouldn't. W…what…a… about you?" Mihashi managed to articulate.

"It's all right. I still have a banana and another juice box. Don't worry, I'll be fine." She smiled at him. As she waited patiently for Mihashi to finish eating, Risa took out a business card from her wallet. It was self-made, printed with her name and cell phone number. Under that, "Reporter/Photographer" and "Nishiura High School Newspaper" was printed in bold fancy script. Nishiura's school symbol was on the top left corner. Risa handed it to Mihashi after he was done with the riceballs and the drink.

"Just hold onto that, in case…in case you need to talk to someone, like if you were in trouble or something," Risa said evasively. She knew if she mentioned bullying again, Mihashi would dissolve into a puddle. Risa was not a particularly sensitive person. If anything, she was the opposite, but the one thing she could not stand for was bullying. Ironically, with her newfound strength from self-help books, she now often came off as the bully.

"Th…thank…you." Mihashi held her card gingerly with his fingertips, as though it were an invaluable treasure he had to be careful not to tarnish. After all, it was the first time a girl had ever given him her telephone number.

Risa decided on a gentle approach. She would lob general easy questions, not necessarily about baseball, and let Mihashi say whatever he wanted. She would be careful not to antagonize him or say anything controversial. She was sure to get something interesting from this guy eventually, if she just sat back and listened.

* * *


	6. Team Interviews Tajima

_Author's Notes: The manga scanlations indicate Tajima says "strictly" a lot. Not sure how he uses it but I tried to incorporate this mannerism. He's probably my second favorite character. _

* * *

_**CH6: Team Interviews - Tajima**_

Despite Abe's rough treatment of his pitcher, he was concerned about how Mihashi was faring against the reporter. Maybe he should have sent Sakaeguchi to help interpret Mihashi's partial phrases and guttural noises. Abe sure needed help most of the time understanding Mihashi. It was very, very, frustrating and it was near impossible to control his temper. What if the reporter upset Mihashi? He saw how Momoe and Hanai looked and acted rather out of sorts after their interviews. He hoped the reporter didn't do anything to Mihashi that would affect his pitching. No way would he forgive that.

But Abe's fears seemed to be unfounded as Mihashi walked steadily, for him, back toward the dugout. Mihashi continued to hold Risa's business card carefully with his fingertips. He stared at it, entranced, as if it held some magical power. _'A girl gave me her number…' _he thought over and over.

"What's that?" Tajima asked as the boys crowded around Mihashi upon his return.

"Sh…she gave me her c…card," Mihashi said in embarrassment.

"Wow, you got her number? Way to go Mihashi! Well, I guess you're more of a man than Hanai. Ha-ha!" Mizutani's laughter was abruptly cut off by Hanai's choke hold.

"It…it's not…like that. Sh…she's like a b…big sister," explained Mihashi. "Oh, sh…she asked me to send Tajima next.

"Finally! Watch this guys, I'll score more than her phone number." Tajima winked at his teammates and bounded up the stairs into the stands. He plopped himself next to the reporter, placed his hands behind his head, propped his legs up on the seat in front of him, and smiled broadly. "Tajima Yuichiro here!" he announced.

The reporter stared at him and cocked an eyebrow. "You're the cleanup hitter?" she said with less disbelief than she had with Mihashi, but it was still apparent. Tajima was small and wiry, about the same size as the pitcher, not like the usual big cleanups hitters. Despite their similar size, it seemed Tajima's personality was the polar opposite of Mihashi's.

"Yep," Tajima replied, nonplussed.

"Aren't you kind of small for that position? You don't look like you can hit the ball very far," she said skeptically.

"No, but I can hit anything," Tajima said confidently.

"Anything? Any pitch?"

"Yep. Soon or later that is. Once in a while I might need to see the pitch a couple of times."

"That sounds impressive. So that makes you the star player?"

"Strictly speaking."

"What about Hanai?"

"Hanai?"

"He used to be a cleanup hitter. Are you better than him?"

"Yep, strictly."

Tajima had surprisingly answered all Risa's questions earnestly without hesitation or arrogance. He was going to be harder to break. "Huh, well what kind of special practice or routine do you do to prepare?"

"Oh, I masturbate daily," Tajima replied bluntly.

That took Risa aback. A taboo word, a taboo subject, yet he said it so freely, especially to a girl. Either he was an insensitive idiot or he had been warned of her tactics and was purposely trying to get back at her. She would play the game, too. Risa collected herself and replied calmly, but she couldn't help blushing just a bit. "I see…I guess that could help."

"Well, girls don't have the same problem boys do. Do they? But it really does help! Total stress release," Tajima explained.

"You don't have a girlfriend, do you." No way would a guy say something like that if he had one. She would have made sure he didn't spout such nonsense to other women.

"Not yet. You wanna be my girlfriend?" Tajima gave her his intense stare, the one that unnerved his opponents.

Risa had to look away under such scrutiny. No one could stand under that wide-eyed look. "Thanks, but no," she said firmly.

"How about a date?"

"No."

"You gave Mihashi your phone number!" Tajima protested.

_'What? Mihashi showed my card to everyone? Doesn't he have the good sense to put it away? Now the whole team has my number? Ugh!_' Risa collected herself and sighed. Guys like him, confident and persistent, were always hard to get rid of. "Do you even have time for a girlfriend? I hear your coach has you guys practicing all hours of the day, weekdays and weekends."

"Hmm, that could be a problem, but I'm sure I can fit one in somewhere. So how about it?"

"If you win the summer tournament, then I'll go out once with you."

"Really? When we win! Yea! A date to celebrate our victory!"

_'I said if,_' Risa thought, '_and the chances of that happening is about 999,999 to one. No problem, sucker.' _She then tried to steer the conversation back to the interview. There had to be something about Tajima that would get to him. "How are your academic grades?"

"Terrible!" he announced gleefully.

He even seemed to be proud of his crappy grades! How could that be? What was up with this guy? "You seem awfully proud of that," Risa pointed out.

"There's nothin' to hide. I just passed last time with the help of my teammates. Nishihiro's really smart!"

Interesting, it seemed the team helped each other off the field as well. "You don't mind being a dumb jock?"

"Only if I was a dumb jock who sucked at sports, but I'm good! So it's okay if I suck at school stuff since I'm good in sports," Tajima reasoned.

"So you guys tutor each other?"

"Momokan insisted. If we don't pass we can't play baseball. So I didn't have a choice."

The guy was amazingly refreshing, Risa had to admit. Such a matter-of-fact attitude, knows his strengths, acknowledges his weakness, confident without the arrogance of other athletes with such talent. Still, there had to be something.

"You have a large family?" Risa decided if she couldn't get Tajima on his skills or sexual habits, maybe there was something with his family.

"Yep, my great-grandfather, grandparents, parents, two older brothers, two older sisters, and sister-in-law all live in the same house."

"Must be a pretty big house."

"Not big enough, strictly, but we have a large garden for the old folks to work in."

"So you're the youngest. Do they spoil you?"

"No! In fact, when my great grandfather was sick, they all went to the hospital and totally forgot about me! That's why I'm at Nishiura. It's only a minute from my house. That way I'll know what's going on immediately."

"So you're very close to your family. Some kids from big families can't wait to get away, privacy issues you know."

Tajima nodded seriously in agreement. "Yeah, it's hard to masturbate sometimes."

Risa wisely decided not to press any further. It seemed there would be no "gotcha" this time around.

* * *

_Author's notes: I've decided to work on some OoFuri pages for my site which will include screencaps, summaries , box scores, charts and graphs, etc. Anyone interested in helping or have suggestions please pm me._


	7. The Rest of the Team

_Author's notes: There are too many characters to juggle, so this chapter is for all the minor characters on the team._

**_CH 7: The Rest of the Team_**

While Tajima was being interviewed, the rest of the team took turns against the two pitching machines. Each took six swings at one machine, then lined up for the second. The old machine was always set to fastballs, but the new one was capable of different pitches. This time it was set to curveballs.

"Sakai Risa? Isn't she in our class?" Nishihiro asked Oki, while they were both waiting for their turns on the fastball machine.

"Think so. She sits in front of the class, right?"

"Right, she's the one who's always studying. I think she hates me." Nishihiro looked rather sad about it. He was such a nice guy, how could anyone hate him?

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, we both get good grades, but I don't study as much as she does."

"That's true. Isn't she always at the top of the test results? Seems she's very competitive." Girls like that tended to scare Oki, who was rather unambitious and on the wishy-washy side.

"Yeah, she's always giving me dirty looks, but maybe I'm being paranoid."

"Maybe she likes you," Oki kidded.

"I really doubt that." Nishihiro shook his head, but he had to smile just a bit at the thought of any girl liking him.

Oki then took his turn at bat while Izumi joined Nishihiro on line.

"I wonder who she'll interview next," Nishihiro said to Izumi.

"Well, so far the order makes sense. The coach, the captain, Ace pitcher, cleanup hitter… Abe will probably be next," Izumi concluded.

Nishihiro nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Abe's probably next. That could be interesting…"

"I'd like a ringside seat for that. Didn't she call him a … Neaderman or something?"

"A Neanderthal is a prehistoric man, you know, a caveman," Nishihiro explained patiently to his less intelligent teammate.

"Yeah, that's it! Ha-ha! Abe looked really, really mad, but he didn't do anything. Probably because she's girl."

Nishihiro had to agree with that. Girls could get away with beating up on boys, but not the other way around. Some girls were very scary. Risa looked like one of them.

"I've got a date!" Tajima ran toward them and excitedly jumped high up in the air.

"When?" most of the team asked in unison, except for Abe who couldn't care less, and Mihashi who was still looking at the business card while he was on line.

"When we win the summer tournament!"

"Ah." Everyone, but Tajima and Mihashi, realized that he had been had. Tajima the eternal optimist actually expected to win the summer tournament. And Mihashi believed Tajima could do anything.

"So is she really cute?" Izumi asked.

"Not particularly."

"So why'd you ask her out?"

"She's girl and she knows baseball. What other reasons do I need?" Tajima deadpanned.

"Boobs!" Izumi and Mizutani said simultaneously.

"Well, they're big enough I guess. She's only a first year. They should get bigger right?"

"Girls should have them big by now I think. They mature faster than us, right?" said Izumi.

"Really? Argh! That's gonna be a problem. I like them big!" groaned Tajima.

"Will you guys shut the hell up and get back to practice! Idiots! Some broad comes along who's not even pretty and you're all like dogs sniffing around a bitch in heat. Pathetic! Girls ruin everything! Er, present company excepted of course," Abe added the last part in case Momoe or Shinooka were listening.

That pretty much did it. The entire team, except Mihashi who never analyzed anything deeply, concluded that Abe had to be gay. He never engaged in locker room talk. Whenever the rest of the team did, he frowned, shook his head and ultimately got very annoyed. Of course, no one dared to voice that thought. Unlike Hanai, Abe would definitely make good on his threats.

"So who's next?" Izumi asked Tajima.

"Nobody. That's it for this morning. She said she'll be back for our practice after classes."

"Well, how was your interview?"

"Great! It was fun. I love interviews! She's really nice!"

Abe and Hanai looked at Tajima as if he needed to be carried away by men in white suits. The girl they encountered could not be called "nice" according to the definition in the dictionary. As usual, Tajima lived in his own world. And so did Mihashi.

"Y…yes sh…she is!" Mihashi agreed. "Sh…she gave me her food."

'"Ooo, what'd you get?" Tajima asked jealously.

"Umm, a sweet bun, two salmon riceballs, and an orange box drink. Mmm…" Mihashi had a spaced-out smile on his face as his mind went to a happy place.

'_So that's why Mihashi looks so calm,'_ Abe thought. _'I just need to hand out treats to him, like to a puppy, and that's how I can keep him in line. Gotta remember to try that.' _

The team soon finished their morning practice and returned to the dugout and locker room to change into their school attire. Abe, Hanai, and Mitzutani went to their class 1-7 together, Mihashi, Izumi, with Tajima to class 1-9, and Sakaeguchi with Suyama to class 1-1.

Oki and Nishihiro paired up to go to their classroom 1-3. When they arrived, they found Risa already at her seat writing furiously in a notebook. They hesitated and looked at each other, wondering whether they should say hello or not. They assumed she knew who they were and that they were on the baseball team.

"We should say hi," Nishihiro said to Oki, but giving him a nudge to go first.

"Yeah, we should. Maybe she'll interview us during the class break."

"You go first."

"No, you should go first." Oki stepped behind Nishihiro.

"But you're a regular."

"Let's do rock, paper, scissors…"

In the end, neither of them actually won.

***---***----***---***---***

After classes were over, the team reformed for their afternoon fielding practice. The usual banter took place in the locker room as the players changed back into their practice uniforms, but with Oki and Nishihiro being particularly quiet.

"Abe, don't bother to suit up, you'll probably be interviewed next. We'll just have Mihashi do fielding practice with the rest of us," Hanai suggested.

"Fine, whatever, total waste of time," Abe muttered.

"I wonder who'll be after Abe. Maybe she'll do it by uniform order or lineup order." Sakaeguchi hoped that he could get it over soon. His stomach started to hurt and he was worried that he'd have diarrhea during the interview. That would make a very, very horribly embarrassing story that would follow him the rest of his school life.

"Well, uh, Nishihiro and I already spoke to her in class," Oki ventured to say.

"Oh, so she's in your class? How'd it go?" Sakaeguchi asked while putting on his practice jersey.

The two boys looked as if they were on the verge of tears.

"Sh…she told me there was no point in interviewing me because I'm just a generic-benchwarmer-spare," said Nishihiro sadly.

"Sh…she implied that I have the easiest position, and first base is for people who can't field. She said all I did was play catch!" Oki said angrily. "That's not true, is it?"

"Of course not!" The rest of the team reassured both Oki and Nishihiro that they were not useless. Even though it was generally true that first basemen did not need good throwing arms like the outfielders, nor quick reactions like the other infielders.

"I don't like what that reporter is doing to the morale of this team. Maybe we shouldn't answer anymore of her questions," said Sakaeguchi, hopeful he could avoid being interviewed.

"But then it'll look like we have something to hide. We just need to make the best of it. Stay positive and be careful what you say," Hanai the captain wisely pointed out.

Tajima, the white knight, shook his head in disbelief. "Maybe you guys did something to annoy her. She was perfectly nice to me and Mihashi."

Before the others had a chance to contradict Tajima, a voice came to them from the stands. "Excuse me! Excuse me! Please send in Mizutani!"

Mizutani? He was at the bottom of the batting order! Why would she want to talk to him first? Unless she was now doing the lineup in reverse order. They were all surprised, but only Abe said, "Mizutani?!" in disbelief.

"Hey, it must be my good looks!" He smiled, winked and flipped his longish rusty brown hair at Abe.

Fifteen minutes later, Mizutani also came back without his usual carefree smile. "She asked me if I'm the worst player because I bat eighth…I'll get better, I promise!" Mizutani sniffed a little before saying, "Suyama, you're next."

Suyama looked as if he had to drink a gallon of the low grade protein Momoe had awarded the lowest scoring members of the team when they tried to predict the Musashino match. Hanai had to push him toward the stands. "Think of the team!" he ordered his shortstop.

Twelve minutes later, Suyama came back slumped over and defeated, as if he had drunk the gallon of low grade protein with no added sugar. "She said I was irrelevant and can't be a poster boy because of my looks. She said no one would want a baseball card with my picture on it." He sighed as a tear threatened to form in his left eye. "Izumi, you're next."

Izumi still felt pretty confident going in. After all, he had good looks, was a competent player, what could she pick on? What she had to say to Nishihiro, Oki, Mizutani and Suyama, was rude, but still...

Ten minutes later, Izumi came back red as a beet. "She suggested I was gay! So not true! You guys don't think I look gay, do you?"

"Maybe you should get a haircut," Abe suggested unkindly. Even though he felt a bit sorry for the guys, it had been hard for him to refrain from laughing at how dead on all the observations were.

Izumi glared at Abe but was afraid to get into a fight with him. He was sure Mihashi had bruises from Abe's pounding. "Sakaeguchi, you're up."

Sakaeguchi was absolutely terrified! "I c…can't. I've got to go to the restroom."

"Fine, I'll go over and tell her that. Should look great in black and white," Abe threatened.

"No! No…I'll go." Sakeguchi dragged his feet and held his arms over his stomach as he slowly made his way over to the reporter.

Five minutes later he ran back to the dugout and straight to the toilet. "I don't want to talk about it!" he sobbed. He did not come out for nearly an hour.

"Well, that leaves me. Don't worry guys - I'll get revenge for you all. No way am I going to let a hack reporter talk down to me." Abe traversed the field, but stopped halfway when he noticed the reporter girl was nowhere in sight. She had left without talking to him. A feeling of doom came over him. If she hadn't interviewed him, what would she write about him?

* * *

_Author's notes: Thanks for any reviews! It's hard to write for such a small fandom and a mostly shounen-ai one at that. Won't have anther chapter for a while since I'll be off on vacation and most of these chapters I had already written in my head. I have to think of the next few chapters before I put them to paper/computer. Risa will be delving into Mihashi's and Momoe's pasts next._


	8. A Visit to Mihoshi

**_Ch 8: A Visit to Mihoshi_**

The next day, Risa did not go to the team's practices. She had all she needed from them, for now. The team members she interviewed had surprised her. They did not have the arrogance expected of a team that just beat Tosei. She was able to "get" them all easily, except Tajima who seemed to be in a class by himself. None of them got angry when she pointed out their flaws and shortcomings. They easily crumbled and became insecure adolescents at her sharp words. She had to admit she almost felt sorry for them.

The only one she did feel sorry for was the pitcher. She was sure he was still being bullied and from what she saw of the other players, it had to be the catcher. He was the only one who exhibited all the characteristics of a bully. The way he approached her and threatened her, the way he yelled at his teammates, the way he threw Mihashi into the stands, the way he ordered Mihashi around – it was completely obvious. She did not need to interview Abe because she already knew his type. She would strike first with the pen.

The worst part of it was the rest of the team had to know about the bullying and did nothing about it. Hanai had implied by his hesitation that there were problems on the team. He knew, and he was captain, and yet he did nothing. He probably had bully tendencies as well, Risa inferred, since he had younger siblings and he was the biggest guy on the team. And the Coach, the way she walked away from the interview, Risa could tell Momoe had a temper. She probably bullied Mihashi, too. In any case, she allowed the catcher to do it.

Nishihiro and Oki had nervously greeted her in the morning as they entered the classroom. To their surprise, Risa smiled warmly and returned their greeting, thanking them and their team for the interviews, as if she had not stabbed them in the gut the day before. For some reason, her smile made them even more nervous as they wondered what her article was going to be like.

A few of the other members also tentatively greeted her in the hall. She made sure to smile and returned their greetings and to thank them. After all, if she had to write future articles on the team, it was important to maintain good relations. Only Tajima enthusiastically waved to her and tried to have an extended conversation with her, asking her when the article was going to come out and if they had enough good pictures of him and offering to pose for more.

After classes she decided to develop her film instead of working on her article. She wanted to do some more investigative work before completing it. She carefully stretched and hung out her film to dry and then checked the time. If she left now, it would take at an hour to get to Mishoshi. Their team should still be practicing when she arrived.

As she took the train to Gunma, she went over her notes. During the game against Tosei, she had made sure to sit near the parents of the Nishiura team. The best source of material was gossiping old women. She found out that Mihashi had pitched for Mihoshi Academy which was owned and run by his grandfather. That explained why Mihashi was allowed to pitch every game even though he lost every game. That would explain why the other players would hate him and bully him. Still, it was impressive that despite the bullying, he continued to pitch. Maybe he wasn't as wimpy as he looked. Maybe it was the one thing he loved and he had to hold onto it or he'd have nothing at all. She had to respect him for having the courage to pitch under such conditions, but also despised him for not standing up to bullies. He even seemed to blame himself for being the target. In fact, Mihashi was so used to being bullied, he gave his current catcher full credit for the Tosei win. All he had was praise for his teammates and took no compliment for himself. A classical victim scenario.

She wondered if his old teammates knew that their ex-pitcher had beaten Tosei. How would they feel? Surprise? Jealous? Angry? It would be interesting to find out. Risa decided the most important person to seek out would be the catcher. After all, the pitcher worked most closely with the catcher. If he was anything like the Nishiura catcher, it would explain everything.

Risa arrived just after the Mihoshi team called it a day. Luckily she was able to wave down the catcher before he entered the dugout. The rest of the team watched with interest as Hatake approached the stand. Some of them wolf-whistled and howled and yelled out encouragement for Hatake to bag her - typical jock behavior.

Risa immediately presented Hatake with her press pass. It was a laminated card issued by the school newspaper. Her name was not on it. Instead, "Press Pass" was printed in bold letters. Under it was "Nishiura High School" and "The Spectator Newspaper Club."

She had dressed more professionally than she had for the Nishiura interviews, as she did not have to get up at six in the morning, wearing a short sleeve pink blouse with gold buttons and a dark blue pencil skirt that went down to just above her knees. What Hatake saw was a rather pretty girl with medium length dark black hair parted off center to the left, and pinned back by a small gold barrette on each side. She had intelligent almond shaped dark brown eyes and a small nose that turned up slightly. Overall, she had an impish look.

"Hello, I'm Sakai Risa from the Nishiura High School newspaper. I hope you have time to answer some questions. I'm doing a feature article on Mihashi Ren. You remember him?" Risa studied the catcher carefully. He was big, bigger and heavier than the Nishiura catcher, with small eyes and a pug nose. Overall, he looked like a big boorish boar, a.k.a. a bully.

"Mihashi? Sure, he pitched for us for three years in middle school."

"Were you his catcher in middle school? What's your name?" Risa watched his expression carefully.

"Hatake Atsushi, I caught all of those three years."

"I see…Well, did you know he just pitched the game Nishiura won against Tosei?"

"Yeah, I heard about. Couldn't believe it! I mean, I knew he had improved based on the practice game we had a few weeks ago, but Tosei? Would never have thought…"

"You mean he was a bad pitcher while he was at Mihoshi?"

"Well, yeah, he lost every game."

"Didn't you have another pitcher?"

"Yeah, but Mihashi insisted on pitching. We couldn't say no since he was the grandson of the school's founder."

Risa noticed the catcher had clenched his teeth, and hands slightly, when he replied. "That couldn't have made you happy," she pointed out.

"Well, of course not, but w…we all wanted to win…"

A slight stutter, he was trying to mitigate his role by including the whole team, Risa analyzed. "Did you try to take matters into your own hands?" she asked brusquely as her reporter's instinct flashed.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Did you threaten him? Bully him?"

"Is that what he told you? Look, it was only words. I never touched him. Besides, I thought we were passed all that. I apologized after Mihashi beat us in the practice game," the catcher said defensively. His voice was raised and angry- he was trying to cover his guilt.

"You think a simple apology is enough to compensate for three years of torture? Do you know what it's like to be hated for that long? Do you know what kind of permanent psychological damage you've inflicted? What kind of horrible, insensitive, despicable person are you?!" Risa's claws were now fully extended with the intention to draw as much blood as possible.

Hatake stared at the girl in shock. Who was she really? Was she from Nishiura's school paper or was she some kind of avenging angel, or devil, sent by Mihashi's family? Still, despite his guilt, his anger prevailed and he clenched his fists and took a step toward her. She flinched, but stood her ground.

"Hey, you've no right to talk to me like that! He's at fault, too. If he wasn't such a wimp…"

"Oh, so you're blaming the victim. How typical of a bully!" The girl's voice and body trembled, but she locked her angry gaze on his eyes and stared him down.

Hatake succumbed under her overwhelming aura of fury. "You're right. I'm sorry. Mihashi was a good pitcher, but I couldn't see it. I apologized, even invited him back, but I know that won't make up for the three years of hell I put him through. But I really thought Mihashi had put it all behind him. Did something happen?"

There was concern in Hatake's voice that surprised Risa. She retracted her bloody claws slightly. "Someone who has been bullied for so long will not accept others so easily in the future. Send him a gift basket, congratulating him on his win against Tosei. And have everyone from his old team sign it," Risa ordered as she finally looked away from the boy.

"Right, that's a good idea. I'll get on that immediately," Hatake promised.

"And don't skimp! A nice big gift basket with lots of snacks."

The girl did not look at him again. He was being dismissed without words. Hatake quietly walked back to the dugout, shaking his head from the disturbing experience. He wondered if the girl was really here to write an article on Mihashi. Weren't reporters supposed to be more objective? Her words seemed much more personal, as if she knew firsthand what Mihashi had went through.

-…-…-

_Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews! This will ultimately be an OCxAbe story, but it will be a while before that happens. _


	9. Momoe's Past

_Author's Notes: I think the manga addressed Momoe's past a bit, but the scanlations aren't out yet, so I'll have to improvise here. Apparently, there was only one member of the baseball team left after a while and he taught Momoe, who was the manager, a lot about baseball._

**_Ch 9: Momoe's Past_**

The confrontation with Mihoshi's catcher almost unnerved Risa. She couldn't control her trembling, but the instinctively fear that she felt when Hatake approached her was quickly masked by her fury.

Risa sat alone in the stands for a while longer to collect herself, until she felt secure that she could stand on her legs without shaking. _'I am stronger than I think I am. I am stronger than I feel. I am stronger than I was yesterday…'_ she recited her mantra over and over in her head as she composed herself for the walk to the station.

Her emotions rampaged within her as she thought of all the bullies she had encountered in her short life. Some bullies were fundamentally cowards at heart, preying on the weak to increase their own self esteem. Then there were other bullies who were just plain mean and enjoyed their cruelty. Hatake fell into the former group. He caved in when confronted with the truth about himself. He couldn't deny what he had done and now he seemed ready to make amends. Too little, too late, in her opinion, but there was another, current bully, she could do something about.

It was already dinnertime when Risa returned home, but the first thing she did was to make some phone calls.

It had been relatively simple to track down someone who knew Momoe. A search of the high school yearbooks gave her the names of people in the same class and those on the baseball team while she was the manager. She had already cross referenced the list with the internet phone directory. Risa was mainly interested in the baseball team members and found only a few who were still living nearby. Not that there were that many to start with. By the time Momoe graduated, there appeared to be only one real team member. The baseball team phased out the year after that.

The three former members of the baseball team she called were at first happy to talk to her, as she said she was doing an article on the history of baseball at Nishiura, but when she mentioned Momoe, their attitude suddenly changed. They were all suddenly too busy to talk and had to be called away from the phone.

She decided that the best bet would to be to talk the old retired faculty advisor in person, under the same pretext. She made an appointment with the old man for after dinner, estimating it would take half an hour to get there from her home. It was going to be another late night.

When Risa finally sat down at dinner table she was immediately scolded by her mother. "Where have you been all day? You're supposed to help me with dinner," Akane said while holding a spatula and leaning over the stove. She was apparently making okonomi-yaki from leftovers.

"Why don't you ask Aki," Risa replied sarcastically.

"You know he has baseball practice after school."

"So what? I have things to do, too, that's more important than just a game."

"If he does well on the team while in middle school, he can get a scholarship to a private high school like your older brother."

"Well, I'm aiming to be valedictorian. Don't you think that's important?"

"So you can get into a good college and a scholarship? What for? Pretty soon you'll get married and have kids. Just make sure you marry someone with good prospects."

"You work," Risa pointed out.

"I work at your father's bakery shop. Like I said, just marry a man with good prospects."

It was the same old argument. Her parents were stuck in the past when women were expected to serve men and were little more than slaves and ornaments. All the more ironic since her mother was the one who actually managed the bakery finances while her father just baked.

Risa ate her okonomi-yaki and curry chicken in silence while her two brothers chatted noisily about their baseball training. They had just come in and sat at the dinner table without even washing up. She noted how her parents made no mention of hygiene. Her mother even served them plates of curry chicken while she had to get up to get hers herself.

Finally she blew up. "Who the hell cares! How does any sports star contribute to the advancement of mankind? You think winning or losing a stupid game makes any difference at all? You know how many cows and trees have to be sacrificed so that you'll have your perfectly round baseballs and perfectly sanded bats? Do you even know what else goes on in this country or this world?"

They all looked at her as if the ranting was by a mad woman just escaped from the nuthouse. They pointedly ignored her and continued to discuss squeeze play strategy. It wasn't as if they didn't care about what went on in the world around them, but simply they didn't see how they could do much about it, so mind as well enjoy themselves and not worry about greater things.

Risa stormed out and grabbed her bag on her way to the front door. "I'll be back in a couple of hours. I have real work to do," she said angrily before slamming the door behind her. She tried her anger management techniques on her way to the train station – taking deep breaths and holding them for a count of ten and picturing serene waterfall scenes. Unfortunately, the scenes involved drowning baseball players.

Back on the train, Risa thought hard about why Momoe's ex-teammates didn't want to talk about her. Maybe she brought up unpleasant memories. A beautiful girl on a team with a bunch of horny high school boys – definitely something had happened.

The team back then had used a soft ball. During the three years Momoe was there, membership had dropped to the point that they did not have enough players to cover the field and could not compete against other teams. The team soon phased out since any school with a serious team had switched to hard balls.

This year the entire team was made up of first year students. No upper classman had been interested at all in playing baseball. Was that because they had switched to using a hard ball? Or was it because the manager was now a woman?

Risa took the elevator up to the third floor of a modern apartment building and rang the doorbell. A spry short elderly man with a full head of gray hair answered the door. He welcomed her in and poured her a cup of green tea. Risa sat on the sofa as he sat on the foot stool facing her. She could tell he was living alone. No ring, no recent family pictures, the man was a bachelor.

"Sagawa sensei," she began, "thank you for seeing me so late. I have a deadline to meet this week so anything you can tell me would be of great help. I have here that you were an English teacher?"

"Yes, in fact I lived in America for a while when I was in college. Hah, of course that was a long time ago. I watched baseball over there with my college friends. When the Nishiura High baseball team needed an advisor, I volunteered, but usually one of the senior players actually did the coaching."

"How long were you involved?"

"Let's see…umm…six years, until it was discontinued from a lack of members.

"The baseball club doesn't seem to be that popular at Nishiura. Did it always have problems attracting members?"

"Well, when I took over, we had about twelve players. The numbers gradually dwindled as other teams went to hard balls and we didn't. Toward the end we were so low on players, the manager had to help out."

_'Gotcha!_' Risa thought_. 'I'll get him to talk about Momoe without him realizing she's the one I'm interested in.'_

"Manager? Usually you're a manager because you're interested in the sport, but have no skills," she prompted.

"Ah, this manager had great skills, and she was a girl!"

"Oh really? How interesting."

"Yeah, she was really something. If she had been a boy, she would've been the star player."

"She must have been really popular with the boys."

At that, the old man frowned. He shook his head sadly. "You would think so, but…what boy wants to be bested by a girl? Several team members left because of that and…well we had trouble recruiting when the word got out. But I didn't have the heart to get rid of her. She loved baseball as much or more than any of the boys."

"Did they bully her?"

"Bully?" He laughed and shook his head. "There were words, of course, but they were too afraid of her. She could have taken on any of them. That didn't win her any favors either. Too bad mixed teams weren't allowed."

So that was it. Momoe was too good for her own good. Risa suddenly felt sorry for her. It was always harder for women than men, especially in a male dominated society like Japan. Even though times were changing, old prejudices still reigned. She wondered how many times Momoe had wished she were a boy or had people tell her she should have been born a boy. Risa had wished that herself when her mother expected her to help out more with chores than her brothers, and she had been told numerous times by her parents that she should have been born a boy with her stubborn, over achieving temperament.

Risa hardly paid attention to the rest of the old man's babbling. She was still thinking about Momoe the volunteer coach who spent her savings and spare time reliving her high school days the way it should have been. A wave of regret swept over her. If only she hadn't antagonized Momoe during her interview. Maybe she would have opened up to her and she would have had something even better to write about - the injustice of a male dominated society.

* * *

_Author's notes: Next up, the article comes out and Abe is not happy. _


	10. The Article

**_Ch 10: The Article_**

The school paper came out the day before the game against Sakitama. Lesser members of the newspaper club, those who did not contribute an article, tried to sell the paper in front of the school for 25 cents. Not everyone cared to take one even at that price. After a few days, it would be given away for free, or you could always borrow a friend's paper.

But the first years didn't know that, and in any case the members of the baseball team and been waiting for the dreaded article. They all planned to buy it, except Abe who insisted he didn't care.

However, Hanai and Mizutani, who were in the same class as Abe, each bought one that morning. They read it immediately during homeroom. To their surprise, the article was all positive! It hailed Momoe as an intelligent modern woman capable of competing with her more experienced male counterparts. Each player received praise for his positive attitude and skills - all except Abe. His paragraph was merely a factual report of his experience with the senior league, his position as vice captain, and how his overly modest pitcher credited him with the win against Tosei. Still, it wasn't anything negative…until they found the other article.

The article on the baseball team, with all the photos, took up the back three pages. The paper was only eight pages long and on the fifth page there was another article, this one starring Abe.

The title was "Initiations and Pledges - Condoned Bullying" and accompanying it was a picture of Hanai pinning Mizutani to the ground, Abe giving Mihashi noogies, and another of Abe's angry face. The article spoke about the dangers of initiation, from practical jokes to drinking alcohol illegally, to accidental death. The article and photos were cleverly and carefully positioned so one could infer that they were related or infer that the photos were just a continuation of the article on the back. The article did not mention any names or the baseball team, but instead talked in general about how despicable bullies were and how they were all cowards picking on those weaker than themselves.

_'Crap! If Abe sees this he'll blow his top and make things worse_,' Hanai wisely surmised.

But Mizutani did not have Hanai's discretion. "Ooo, she wrote I have the looks and locks of a rock star. Hey Abe! Look, there're more photos of you than anyone else!"

Mizutani walked over to Abe's desk and shoved the paper in his face. "See? Yea, we're all famous!"

Abe grabbed the paper from Mizutani and scanned the page with the article on bullying.

"What the hell is this? That hack is making me out to be a bully? She didn't even interview me!"

Hanai was not happy about his picture either, but at least his face wasn't showing and since he was wearing his practice uniform, there was no number. It was unlikely that he would be identified. Abe, however, was front and center. Like Mizutani said, he'd be famous.

"Lower your voice Abe, the teacher will be here soon. Look, don't worry about it. Everyone on the team knows the truth, and anyone who knows you. Nobody else matters. No one will believe all that stuff, especially not in a high school rag." Hanai did not voice his true thoughts, which were that Abe did bully Mihashi. Not that he blamed him. Mihashi was difficult to deal with and often tested his own patience. "But maybe you should cool it from now on," he added.

"What do you mean?"

"Just be more patient, especially in public, and near any reporters."

Abe's response was to rip the paper into tiny pieces. There was no way he'd let that bitch get away with this.

Mizutani was about to complain that Abe owed him 25 cents. He had planned to cut out the article and mount it in his scrapbook. But Abe's dark face, the one he reserved for special occasions, as when Mizutani made the error against Mihoshi, stopped him before he let out a squeak. He was just going to have to buy another copy.

Abe felt people staring at him and whispering all day. He was sure it wasn't just his paranoia. On his way to lunch he bumped into a small first year and the kid practically bowed to the ground, apologizing for his carelessness. Then he quickly scurried away before Abe had a chance to say it wasn't his fault. His anger and paranoia continued to build when during lunch he heard some snooty girls discuss how terrible it must be for the "darling little pitcher to be so mistreated by the big mean catcher" in voices purposely loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Where is that hack?" Abe muttered as he looked around the cafeteria, but the reporter was nowhere to be found.

It wasn't hard to find Risa. After classes, Abe went directly to the newspaper club's room. He found her alone, by the club's computer, just about to turn it on to work on whatever slanderous article she had prepared next. His aura of fury must have warned her - she turned her head to him.

"May I help you?" Risa asked politely.

"I think you've 'helped' quite enough. Just what are you trying to do?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, then turned back to her computer screen.

Abe came up to her chair, grabbed its back and spun it around so that she was forced to face him.

"You know what I'm talking about! The article about bullying? The one with my picture?"

"So? If the shoe fits…" Risa straightened her chair again and tried to ignore Abe.

"I'm not a bully. I don't bully Mihashi. You've got it all wrong…"

"Oh? Do I? Pictures don't lie! And I know what I saw. If you're in denial, that's your problem…"

Abe leaned in close, with his fists clenched and right arm raised. It was a typical stance for him, but Risa instinctively flinched and raised her arm to protect herself. Then she quickly recovered her composure and said in a quiet, cold, trembling voice, "What are you going to do? Hit me? Boys like you grow up to be drunks and wife beaters and earn minimum wage. Is that what your father's like?"

Abe took a few steps back, surprised at the vehemence in her voice. "I don't know what your problem is, but…you have some serious issues." He left it at that. The girl was crazy. He was afraid if he pressed her any further, she'd cry rape or something worse to make him look even worse than a bully.

By the time he arrived for practice, he was a good fifteen minutes late. Cause for punishment in Momoe's eyes, usually, but today she was in a particularly good mood. She had read the article on the team and was surprised how positive it was. In fact, it even suggested supporting the baseball team via donations or purchases of team caps and T-shirts and other paraphernalia. Shiga-sensei had informed her that the reporter had talked to him about merchandising and publicity to help with funding. After all, Momoe could not be expected to support the team continuously for the next three years or more. That reporter was now gold in her eyes.

The rest of the team had also read the article and were very relieved and happy with the final product. Mihashi was described as determined with a will of steel! Hanai, as the captain, was the rock of the team! Tajima was multi-talented! Suyama, Oki, Sakaeguchi were all solid infielders and great guys! Izumi and Mizutani had the looks to grace posters! Even Nishihiro was praised for his hard work and dedication.

They were also thrilled with the two gift baskets. One was specifically for Mihashi from his old teammates at Mihoshi. It contained a scrumptious assortment of snacks (including all flavors of Pocky) and drinks (including all flavors of Ramune). Mihashi stared at the card, reading it over and over. "Congratulations on your win against Tosei! Hope to Play with You Again. Good Luck!"

The other was a large box of the fish shaped taiyaki and the round cream-yaki. The card was signed "Thank you for your time. Wishing you the best of luck in all future games. From the Newspaper Club."

"That must be from Risa's parent's bakery," Tajima pointed out.

"You're on first name terms now?" asked Izumi. "And how do you know about her parents?"

"I've got a date with her, don't I? So I ask her stuff. That's how you get a girl," Tajima said simply. "Oh, and she asked me to call her Risa because…" Tajima paused and screwed up his face as if in deep thought as he tried to recollect her exact words. "'The family surname is a propagation of male dominance in society, which is nonsensical as you can be sure of the biological mother, but not the father, so that heredity should rightfully be along the maternal line.' Whatever that means."

_'Oooo…' _his teammates were all super impressed that Tajima, who barely passed any of his tests, was able to remember such a long quote.

"It means she's rejecting her surname because it's her father's," Nishihiro explained. He added to himself how that was no longer true - with in vitro conception, you couldn't be sure who the biological mother was either. He turned his attention back to the box of goodies. "Mmm, the taiyaki sure looks good…"

"What's wrong with you guys? Don't be suckered in by a box of cakes! That girl is evil!" Abe ranted.

Tajima was about to protest, but Sakaeguchi tugged at his arm. There was no use arguing with Abe.

"What's wrong, Abe?" asked Sakaeguchi. "It was a good article."

"Didn't any of you read the other article?"

"What other article?"

"The one on bullying! The one with pictures of me! Oh, and Hanai too."

Sakaeguchi, Tajima, and Izumi looked at each other in confusion.

"Oh, that article. Your picture was supposed to be with that article? It was clearly labeled 'Field Antics' so it wasn't about bullying. Aren't you over-reacting?" asked Izumi.

"No, I'm not! That reporter's out to get me. I'm sure of it." Abe's temple veins bulged out even more than usual.

"Abe, let it go. Focus on tomorrow's game, all right?" Hanai said evenly. "Look at me, I don't care." Actually, Hanai was annoyed, but relieved since his face wasn't obvious and he had to act more mature since he was the captain.

"Whatever," Abe muttered. He started to put on his protective gear. From the corner of his eye he saw Mihashi skulking nearby. His temper escalated another notch. It was all Mihashi's fault! It was because of Mihashi's annoying bewildered look that he had words with the reporter. If it had been someone normal, like Hanai or Sakaeguchi (but maybe not Tajima or Mizutani), who would have simply pointed out there was a girl in the stands taking pictures, he would have thought she was a fan, not a spy. Abe glared at poor Mihashi who was still ambivalently looking back and forth from Abe to the field.

Mihashi looked as if he wanted to say something, but was too afraid. Finally, Abe couldn't take it anymore. "What is it?" he barked. "If you have something to say, out with it!"

"I…er…I…d…th…y…n…not a bully!" Mihashi squeaked, then ran out to the field.

Abe stood alone in the dugout for a moment, just thinking. "I'm not. Am I?" he said quietly to himself.

* * *

End of Part I

_Author's Notes: I plan for four parts because of the baseball metaphor for relationships I'm using for the title. In part one, First Base, Risa has gotten under Abe's skin for better or worse, worse actually, lol. Visit my Ookiku forum for status updates, character discussion, baseball questions, etc._


	11. Meet the Parents

_Author's Note: The mothers will be referred to as –san and the fathers as –sama instead of Mrs./Mr. though I have to admit it is sexist to give the fathers a higher level of respect, but there are more moms than dads and san is shorter to type. Manga spoilers follow!_

* * *

**Part 2: Second Base**

**Ch 11: Meet the Parents**

Risa looked around the empty stands. The Sakitama game was being held on a weekday when class was still in session, so only a few parents attended - those who were either housewives, took off from work, or were out of work, or were retired. Risa managed to get a special get-out-of-school-free-pass because she was on the newspaper club, and because she was the top student. It didn't matter if she missed a half day of classes, especially since finals were over, and they were mostly just doing preview work for the next trimester.

And then there were the athletic activities that everyone was expected to participate. No one expected her to participate. The gym teacher was especially happy to let her skip class. Risa often sat out of gym, citing pre-menstrual syndrome, menstruation, and post-menstrual syndrome. The coaches didn't let her off at first, but after the a few weeks of classes (where she took over half an hour to run a mile, then she doubled over and fainted from hyperventilating; where she repeatedly failed to hit the volleyball over the net, in fact she sent it behind her on most serves - hitting the players behind her; where she repeatedly fell over the soccer ball, causing other players to trample or trip over her), they realized not only was she was a danger to herself, but also to others. So they let her sit out whenever she requested, which was about 80% of the time. Risa barely passed gym, but luckily it did not count toward her academic average so she didn't care.

Risa decided to sit near the Nishiura baseball moms again. She listened as they prattled on about their brats. There was Mihashi's mother who looked and acted much like her son in her rather shy, timid way. Sitting next to her was Hanai's mother, who was pushy and loud, a leader like her son. Sitting in the row below was a more sophisticated, older looking woman, Izumi's mother who didn't say a lot. Next to her was a pretty younger woman, who looked very much like her son Mizutani. The woman next to her, Risa identified as Oki's mother, after listening to their conversation. She did not look much like her son at all.

Risa half watched the game and half listened to the parents as Sakitama was quickly put down in the first inning and as Nishiura quickly scored two runs in the bottom of the first. She had a feeling it was going to be a lopsided game, nothing like the exciting Tosei game. Her feeling was confirmed when in the top of the second, Mihashi intentionally walked the fifth batter – the imposing catcher.

She understood the strategy – he was definitely a threat. But it seemed a cowardly act. The Sakitama supporters agreed as they jeered and heckled the pitcher. It was not the pitcher's fault, Risa angrily realized; it was the catcher.

Her suspicions were confirmed when in the bottom of the second inning, Abe's mother joined Hanai's and Mihashi's, ranting about how her older son ate her younger son's breakfast. She then mentioned how Abe and his father talked about walking Sakitama's fifth batter and then smirked. Abe's mother then apologized to Mihashi's, saying, "He always ends up doing whatever he wants."

'_And whose fault is that?_' Risa muttered angrily to herself. Demoralizing their opponents. Strategy? Yes. Fairplay? No.

She watched as the Nishiura team proceeded to trounce the Sakitama team. She watched as they intentionally walked the huge catcher again.

Right before the fifth inning break, Risa rose up and stretched. She walked back toward the parents and smiled amiably. "Excuse me, I'm Sakai Risa from the Nishiura High School newspaper club. I'd like to ask you a few questions." She directed her request to the top row of parents, where Mihash's, Abe's, and Hanai's mothers sat. The other ones were insignificant in her eyes.

"Oh! You want to interview us? I've never been interviewed before." Mihashi's mom laughed nervously.

"I can go first if you like," Hanai's mother offered. "That way you can gather your thoughts."

Mihashi-san and Abe-san nodded in relief at her proposal.

Risa motioned for her to follow. They sat a few rows away, far enough to be out of earshot. Risa took out her little notepad and pen. "So tell me a bit about your son Azusa. What's he like at home?"

"Azusa's a wonderful son. He helps me out all the time, especially when my twin girls were young. We're very close. We talk about all sorts of things, not just baseball." Hanai-san beamed enthusiastically.

"So that makes him a responsible leader?" Risa kept her gaze on the loquacious woman.

"Yes, he was the captain in middle school, too. I wasn't surprise at all when he was elected captain by his teammates. He's such a hardworking, responsible boy…"

"Don't you think being the leader all the time is stressful?" Risa interrupted her long stream of words.

"Stressful? I think he can handle it fine." Hanai-san paused to think about the possibility a little more. Hanai did seem a bit crankier than usual, but she had just chalked it up to puberty.

"Really? Today he's the cleanup and he hasn't been doing too well. And look at that…" Out of the corner of her eye, Risa noticed the Nishiura captain towering over the pitcher. Mihashi looked so terrified, it was quite possible he could melt right into the ground. "What do you think is going on over there?"

Hanai's mother frowned as she saw her son exchange words with the timid pitcher. What was he doing? She knew Azusa had a short temper, but he was usually good about controlling it outside of the home.

"Your son, he's a bit of a bully isn't he?" Risa asked abruptly. She could read the woman's face. It wasn't a look of surprise, but of concern. This was not something new.

"Well…ah…he's a good boy. Just has a bit of a temper sometimes. He's not a bully," the protective mother insisted.

Risa decided to come at it from a different angle. "You claim you two are close. What, are you like friends?"

"Oh, yes. Why he doesn't even like me to call him Azusa and he doesn't like to call me mom. That's too familiar. We're like buddies…Ha-ha," Hanai-san seem relieved to drop the topic of bullying.

"Hmm, does that mean you let him talk back to you?" Risa was still angling for her "gotcha."

"Talk back? Well…ah…we have open dialogues if that's what you mean." Hanai-san was now suspicious of the reporter's questions. It seemed she was trying to make her son out to be a bad guy.

Risa released her claws. "What I mean is: You're his parent, not a friend! Act like a parent! Don't let him get away with bullying his sisters and talking back to you! You think that makes him a leader?"

But Hanai-san was a fierce woman, too, not one to be spoken down to by a girl less than half her age. "Hey! Who do you think you are? You're just a little girl from an insignificant high school newspaper trying to act and talk big! You don't know anything! You don't know how hard my son works on and off the field. I'm a good mother and he's a good son and…"

Suddenly a shout was heard from the usually timid Nishiura pitcher: "HE'S NOT BULLYING ME!"

Hanai's mother's face turned beet red.

At first Risa thought the pitcher was shouting at her. Then she realized he was addressing Tajima. Something must have happened. So the team was definitely not one big happy family. Risa smiled in satisfaction. Then she nodded her head in recognition of Mihashi's perpertual state of denial.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Next up – interview with Mihashi's mom_


	12. A Good Mother

_Author's Notes: I always wondered how Mihashi's parents could send him away for middle school. Even if his grandfather did own the school and he lived with his aunt and uncle, it seems a very callous thing to do. So here's my explanation._

**

* * *

Ch 12: A Good Mother**

Mihashi-san chewed on her lower lip and ran her hands through her short brown hair. Her eyes twitched nervously as the young reporter stared steadily at her. She noted how the girl seemed so serious and self-assured, much more mature than she was at her age, and much, much more composed than her son Ren. She tried her best to smile, to hide her anxiety, but she doubted if much got past those dark eyes, like black holes sucking in the data around her.

Hanai-san had seemed rather irritated and was not her usual talkative self when she returned to her seat. She muttered something about yellow journalism, but the term was unfamiliar to Mihashi-san. All Mihashi-san knew for sure was that her son had spoken highly of the reporter when she questioned him about the business card. The other day when she entered his room to wake him for practice, she had found it lying on the floor, a corner peeking out from amid his mess. First she was confused – why would Ren have such a card? And was it normal for a high school reporter to issue business cards? Ren snatched it from her hands, red faced and stammering she shouldn't be touching his stuff, and then he quickly adding an apology. He explained that the high school paper was doing a feature on the baseball team and the reporter was a girl.

How cute he was! Blushing and stammering about a girl – it would be nice if he had a girlfriend, a female friend, other than his cousin Ruri, instead of hanging around with a bunch of sweaty guys all day. But when he saw the hopeful smile on his mother's face, Ren made it clear it was just business. "She was really nice, like a big sister, and she shared her lunch with me," he had enthused.

But somehow Mihashi-san didn't buy it. She knew about the porn magazines hidden under Ren's mattress, like just about every other teenage boy, but she felt it wise not to press the matter. Teenage boys needed their space. If he needed her advice, he would ask, wouldn't he?

Risa smiled back at her, trying her best to put the anxious woman at ease. She wondered if she should offer her the snack she packed, but decided against it. A middle-aged woman would probably not be bought off by food, even though she did look and act much like her son.

"Tell me about your son. I hear he didn't live with you during his middle school years and you moved around when he was young," Risa said to start off the interview.

"Ah, well, we, uh, only moved once when he was in second grade, to where we're living now." Mihashi-san wondered how much the reporter actually knew already.

"Was that difficult for him?"

"Uh, I, umm, suppose so. He's always been very shy. It was hard for him to make friends. Oh, I remember how one time he biked back to where we used to live and found out the place was gone. It was really run down and was demolished soon after we left." It was a sad memory. Ren had always been a crybaby, but that time he had cried as if his heart were truly breaking,

"Must have been pretty traumatic," Risa inferred, jotting down a few notes.

"He was devastated at first, but he got over it okay. He asked his father to build him a target for pitching practice."

"So he used to pitch and play baseball with his old friends and when they were gone, he practiced with the target?"

"Yes, that's right. He's been playing baseball since kindergarten. Hama-chan…I mean Hamada from the cheer squad, was his friend from way back then. It's so wonderful that they met up again."

"Oh really?" Risa made a note about possibly talking to the cheer squad guys. "So why did you send him to Mihoshi?"

"Well, ah, my father-in-law founded that school. He suggested it. It's a very good school and his cousins go there and he was friendly with their neighbor, so it seemed like a good idea." Mihashi-san left out the part that the old man had practically insisted on it. Considering how she and her husband had eloped, and how his father had loathed her, it was something that she and her husband reluctantly agreed to, in order to make the old man happy. She looked down at her hands and sighed. Even now she wondered whether it was the right decision.

The motion was not lost on Risa. Mihashi-san's defensive explanation, of why they sent their son to Mihoshi, was covering up something. Probably something to do with gaining the rich old man's favor. But that was for another day.

"How often did he come home?" Risa continued.

"Just during the trimester breaks and part of the summer."

"How often did you visit him?"

"Ah, my husband and I both worked so…not very often," she admitted guiltily.

"It's not that far away to Gunma," Risa pointed out with a frown. "Didn't you miss him?"

"Of…of course we did! It's just that…we missed Ren a lot, but his grades were so poor we didn't want to distract him from his studies."

Risa remained unconvinced. It was likely that his parents were happy to get rid of their whiney kid for a while and just visit when it was convenient. That's why boarding schools and nannies existed for rich people. "Did he like it there at Mihoshi Academy?" It was a rhetorical question. It was obvious he didn't - that's why he transferred.

"I…I suppose so. He never complained." In truth she knew that he didn't, but still she and her husband pressured him to stay at Mihoshi for the good of the family.

"Does he ever complain about anything?" Risa asked with a sarcastic edge to her voice. The woman was really annoying her. She was either stupid, blind, or lying.

"N…no…no…I…I guess he doesn't." The mid-day sun shone relentlessly in the clear sky. But Mihashi-san felt even warmer under the girl's disapproving gaze. It was true. Ren never complained. Rarely asked for anything. It was frustrating dealing with someone with no opinion, no preferences.

"He pitched for Mihoshi the whole time he was there," Risa asked as she saw the woman's attention wander.

"Y…yes, but I didn't go to any of his games. The game against Tosei was my first." Mihashi-san smiled at the memory of Ren's win.

Risa sensed a "gotcha" coming soon. "Why not?"

"H…he never told me about them. I guess he didn't want me to go."

"Didn't you find that strange?" Risa leaned forward toward her prey.

Mihashi-san could feel the sweat beads on her forehead drip down the sides of her face. "I…I suppose so."

"So why didn't you make the effort to find out when the games were held? You could've called the school. You could've gone. But you didn't."

"I…I…he didn't want me to go," said Mihashi-san. She shrank a bit like her son. "I…I couldn't go against his wishes. I didn't want to embarrass him," she said in her defense.

Risa's claws struck. "You sent your son, an extreme introvert, to another school where he rarely came home and you rarely visited. You didn't know what he was doing or how he was treated or even how he was feeling. You didn't know he was being bullied, do you? You didn't know how his teammates hated him because he was the owner's son. Do you know anything at all?! Do you think you're a good mother?!

Mihashi-san turned white at the accusations. Bullied? Ren was being bullied? He never…but she should have known. Wasn't it obvious? He never liked to talk about school or baseball. He never smiled since attending Mihoshi. How could she have been so blind?

"I…I'm s…sorry," she said as tears ran down her face. She paused to take a tissue from her purse and dabbed at her eyes. "You're right. I should have known. Maybe I did, but I didn't want to acknowledge it. But he's always been a weak, timid child, so I didn't want to interfere. I wanted him to work things out himself. I wanted him to be stronger…"

"By sending him away with no parental support. By pulling the rug from under him. By removing the safety net and expecting him to fly through the air. You must be the worst mother I've ever met!"

Mihashi-san took out the full pack of tissues from her purse, grabbed a bunch and sobbed copiously. "I…I'm …so…sorry. I'm sorry, so, so sorry! I know I'm a terrible mother, but I love my son. My husband and his father kept telling me I was smothering him and that's why Ren's so timid. I didn't know what to do. Either I spoil him or I neglect him. It's hard to be a good mother. What am I supposed to do?" She blew her nose loudly and continued to wipe her tears with the same tissues.

Risa leaned back into her seat and sighed. She was no psychologist or parenting expert. What would she do in Mihashi-san's place with a son like that? She'd probably shake him until his teeth rattled in his empty head. She now felt sorry for Mihashi-san. For a grown woman to cry like that…she must have felt guilty for a long time. All Risa did was voice her silent thoughts.

Risa put on her best sympathetic look, placed her left hand on Mihashi-san's shoulder and said, "You're not a bad mother. And what's important now is the present and the future. You can still make amends. You can still support him, stop him from being bullied, and help him change."

Mihashi-san stopped sniffling. _'Change Ren?' _A small smile graced her face. There was still hope.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Next up, Abe's mom._

_Join my OoFuri forum here at ffnet! My website OoFuri pages at animefamily. com /oofuri. htm are about 40% done. I plan to put up manga spoilers but have a few chapters that I don't have summaries for. Anyone up on the manga and willing to do a quick one paragraph summary please pm me._


	13. Sibling Rivalry

**Ch 13: Sibling Rivalry**

Abe-san spent the sixth inning listening to Hanai-san bitch about the reporter. The reporter had inexplicably accused her son, Azusa, of being a bully. Abe-san was also surprised at the accusation. Azusa was the captain and didn't the captain have to be fair to all the players? Wasn't he elected because the team thought highly of him? It wasn't just a popularity contest, was it? Well, if it had been a popularity contest, no wonder Taka didn't win.

On the few occasions that she had observed the tall lanky young man, he seemed to be respectful and conscientious. What made the reporter think that he was a bully? If that reporter thought Azusa was a bully, what in the world did she think of Taka? A representative from the demon realm?

Abe-san looked over at Mihashi-san sobbing copiously in her tissues a few rows away, while Hanai-san was obliviously self-absorbed and still ranting. Ren was a good boy - shy, timid, and not a bully. What did that girl say to upset her like that?

Well, whatever that girl had to say about Taka, she would probably agree. Taka was a bully. She could admit that, so there shouldn't be a problem.

If Hanai-san had accepted the possibility that her son might be a bit of a bully, she wouldn't be so upset now. "Why I have more experience in the tip of my pinky finger than that little brat has in her whole pre-pubescent body!" Hanai-san fumed.

Abe-san nodded agreeably. She didn't bother to correct her friend that the girl was already post-pubescent.

As the sixth inning ended, Mihashi-san returned to their row. Her eyes were still red and her face flushed. But she smiled and said, "It wasn't so bad. She's a good girl. Really opened up my eyes. I learned a lot from her." Mihashi-san sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

Abe-san wondered exactly what she learned, but Mihashi-san did not elaborate. Instead she said, "Abe-san she asked for you next."

Abe-san looked over at her husband, seated a few rows above and away from her, and wondered if she should call him over. She decided against it. After all, the other mothers were interviewed without their spouses, so it wouldn't be fair. Besides, she was afraid how her husband would react to any accusation against their son. His sheer size and loudness might intimidate or aggravate the reporter even further and it would be Taka who would have to bear the brunt of it.

So the first thing Abe-san did, when the reporter greeted her, was to bow and apologize. "I'm sorry!" she said sincerely.

"Sorry?" Risa asked, confused by her action. "Sorry for what?"

"I'm sorry for whatever Taka has done. He never listens to me. He does whatever he wants. I know he's a bully. I'm sorry!"

It seemed Abe-san had taken away Risa's "gotcha." But she was a persistent reporter with more than one trick up her sleeve. "And just who do you think is responsible for that?"

"Who?" Abe-san blinked twice.

"You say your son's a bully, but what have you done about it?"

"I…What can I do? He's not a bad boy and he's not a mean bully…Taka just doesn't have much patience."

Risa was tired of parents making excuses for their children's inexcusable behavior. "Does he beat up his younger brother?" she asked trying to prove a point.

"Ah, well, all siblings fight…"

"That's true. And the closer in age they are, the more competitive they are and the more they fight," Risa observed astutely.

Abe-san nodded in agreement. The girl definitely knew what she was talking about. She had always thought that by having two boys, they would become close friends. Instead, since Shun was able to walk, it was like a non-stop boxing match - with her as the referee and her husband as the fan cheering them on.

"I overheard you say he ate his brother's breakfast this morning. Does that happen often?" the reporter asked.

"Th…that's not bullying…it's…he's just hungry. Taka's a growing teenage boy…"

"Then you're not feeding him enough? He wanted more, but you failed to recognize his needs. Instead you were focused on your younger son. Is that correct?" Risa stared steadily at her.

"I…I'm not sure. Taka didn't ask for more. He just grabbed his brother's eggs with his hands and wolfed them down before I could say anything. Then he ran out the door for morning practice."

"So there's a serious communication problem?"

"Problem? Well, Taka doesn't say much to me. He talks to his dad a lot about baseball, but that's normal for teenagers. They don't talk much to their parents, right?" Abe-san fidgeted in her seat. Now she understood why Hanai-san and Mihashi-san were so rattled. Just what was the girl implying?

"You make all these excuses for your son…did you know bullies are actually asking for attention?"

"Really? Bullying is a cry for attention?" Abe-san fretfully contemplated the possibility.

_'Aiming arrow…'_

"How are things at home? Are you spending all your time on your second son?"

"I do spend more time with Shun. He is younger after all. And Taka's always been so independent, more than Shun. He's never needed me."

_'Releasing arrow…'_

"Is that really the case or is it that he became independent because you neglected him once your second son was born?" Risa harshly pointed out.

"I…I've never thought about it that way."

_'Arrow flying toward target…'_

"When was the last time you had mother-son alone time, with just you and Taka – I mean Takaya?"

"When? Hmm…let's see…there was that time…no…that's not it…" Abe-san wrung her hands as she tried to recall the last time, any time, that she had spent with her older son by themselves. She came up empty. "Oh my! Never! After Shun was born it's always been the three of us, or with their father, or just me and Shun."

_'Arrow strikes heart of target, bullseye!'_

"There you go. It's all your fault. His bullying, anger issues, it's all because you neglected him. Classic case." Risa shook her head disapprovingly. "You see, it's all a cry for help."

"A cry for help?'

"Yes, absolutely. He's really angry at you, but instead of taking it out on you, he takes his anger out on those weaker than he is, like the pitcher. Classic example of transference."

"Transference? Bullying Ren?" Abe-san didn't know what transference meant, but it didn't sound good.

"Yes, haven't you noticed?"

"I don't know…Mihashi-san never mentioned it. I've seen Abe yell at Ren but he yells at everyone." Abe-san frowned. It seemed Taka was either silent or yelling. That wasn't normal, was it? But then again, he and his father both naturally had a loud voice.

"Okay, so let's look closer to home. He takes his brother's stuff. Doesn't ask for permission, doesn't apologize. You get mad and yell at him. It's only when he does something wrong do you actually notice him. It's negative attention, but it's still something he unconsciously craves."

It all made sense. It was as if the girl had spent days observing her family. She wasn't stalking them, was she? Abe-san shook off that ridiculous thought, instead she asked in defeat, "What should I do?"

"Spend quality time with your son, one on one. Take him shopping, or go to a movie, or even attend a pro game together. Maybe you can just take him out for lunch and talk. It doesn't take much. Communication is the key. Once he feels secure and loved, his bullying tendencies should alleviate."

Abe-san nodded as she mulled over the girl's suggestions. She could do that, but it would be hard finding the time given his baseball schedule. Still, she had to if she wanted to make Taka a better person, to save him from a lifetime of dysfunction.

Risa smiled as Abe-san thanked her and apologized again. Her plan was working. First Mihashi-san and now Abe-san. With just a little coaching and pushing, she could change the team dynamics for the better.

* * *

_Next up: Risa puts her plan into action and Abe is not happy._


	14. Doppelganger

**Ch 14: Doppelganger**

Abe was in a particularly good mood. The team had achieved their goal of a called game against Sakitama. The post game meeting also went well with Mihashi actually taking part, although it was in his usual jellyfish-mouse-fish-face-stuttering-sort of way. It seemed their long talk in the subway on the way back had given him some perspective, if not confidence.

After some light practice and stretching, Momoe had given the team the rest of the day off with early practice again the next day. Abe was looking forward to relaxing tonight, a nice long soak, a quick dinner, maybe play some video games, watch some TV, talk more baseball with his father, going over the player stats for their next opponents…

What he found when he got home was his mother cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

"Ah, Taka! Welcome home, sweetie. Dinner will be ready soon. We're having all your favorites to celebrate your victory today!"

It was just past five. "What about Dad? We're not waiting for him?" His father usually didn't get home until past 6:30. It was a bit strange to have his mother cooking so early and even stranger for his mother to call him "sweetie." His mother hadn't called him that since he was six, when he pushed his brother off the bed, causing Shun to chip a front baby tooth.

"I figure you must be hungry and tired from today's great game, so we can eat first. Besides, your father has to work late tonight since he took a few hours off for your game and a problem came up."

"What about Shun? Is he back from practice?"

"Yes, he just washed up and he'll be helping me set the table. You take it easy for now."

"Fine," Abe replied as he went to his room to ready for his bath. When he came out in his skivies and approached the bathroom, he heard the water running.

"I prepared a bubble bath for you, Taka, darling," his mother said as she tested the temperature and adjusted the faucets. Then she added some more lavender bubble solution.

"A bubble bath? I'm not six anymore!"

"You're never too old for a bubble bath. I take one every so often. It's very relaxing. I'm sure you'll love it, especially after a game."

"Fine," Abe muttered and waited for his mother to leave. After entering the warm soapy water, he had to admit it did feel refreshing. And the lavender sure smelled good. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. This was aroma therapy, he reasoned, not some sissy bubble bath for babies.

He emptied his mind and imagined the bubbles were baseballs floating in the air. One moved in a straight line, another curved around, and another... His tranquility was interrupted by a sharp rap at the door.

"Taka, dear, I have some freshly laundered towels for you," his mother said as she entered without his permission.

"Hey! Get outta here! This is private time!" Abe shouted as he tried to gather some bubbles to hide his lower region.

"Oh, please, it's not like I haven't seen all that before." Abe-san laughed. "I am your mother after all," she said as she closed the door on her way out.

Abe seriously wondered if that was genuinely the case. That woman did not act like his mother at all.

After soaking for fifteen minutes, and drying off, Abe changed into fresh underwear laid out by his mother on his bed. Then he lay down and closed his eyes, his mother's unusual behavior forgotten.

Just as he was about to drift off, he heard a soft knock on the door and his mother's voice again. "Taka, dear, I'm coming in. I have a nice cold drink and a snack for you before dinner." She came in holding a tray with a tall glass of iced original Calpico and a bowl of rice crackers. "Don't fill up too much. We're having a special dinner tonight," she said as she carefully placed the tray on the small table next to his bed.

_'Dear?_' Another term of endearment, and snacks before dinner? Was his mother abducted and replaced by an alien? Well, whatever, maybe she was in a good mood for some reason. Maybe there was a sale over at Sogo's department store.

Abe drank his yogurt flavored drink, lay back down, drifted off and dreamt of playing in Koshien. Mihashi was on the mound and he was behind the plate. At bat was that bastard Haruna. Abe signaled for a fast fastball. Mihashi wound up and threw with all his strength. It was outside. Haruna didn't chase it. Instead, the dark prince turned his head and arrogantly said, "You call that a fastball? I can pitch with more speed than that, in my sleep, with my legs tied together, and one hand behind my back, and blindfolded and…"

"If you were asleep, why would you be blindfolded?" Abe asked sarcastically.

Haruna glowered at him and returned to his batting stance.

Abe signaled for Mihashi's regular fastball. Strike, looking! Then again. Strike swinging! And again. Strike swinging! Haruna struck out, looking like the pathetic wannabe amateur that he was.

Abe smiled in his sleep. The crowd roared and applauded. Then from amid the noise, he heard a voice calling him.

"Taka, honey! Dinner's ready. Please wash your hands before you come down." His mother's voice. But honey? That's something she sometimes called his father or Shun, but she hadn't called him that since he was five, when he hit Shun over the head with his Little League baseball bat, leaving him with a huge bump, and a small half inch scar on his crown, now hidden by hair.

Abe slowly got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash his hands. He then weighed himself on the bathroom scale. No change from yesterday, no change from this morning. Damn, when was he going to hit his growth spurt? When was he going to get as big and strong as that bastard Haruna?

Downstairs, the dining table was laid out from end to end with all sorts of dishes. There were egg omelets, roasted eel, pork katsu, chicken yakatori, seaweed salad, curry potatoes, and more. His mother had set Abe's plate and a bowl of rice at the head of the table. She was sitting to his left. Shun was seated on his right. Their plates were still empty. It was apparent they were waiting for him before eating. Since when did they ever wait for him?

They waited for Abe to say "itadakimasu" before they lifted their chopsticks. Abe's mom quickly picked up a bit of each dish and placed it carefully on Abe's plate. She then scolded Shun for taking too much of the pork katsu. Since when did his mother scold Shun about taking too much food? Since when did his mother scold Shun about anything? Abe shook off the disconcerting feeling. It was nice to be treated this way for once - not having to compete with his brother for food.

Abe smiled as he chewed. Head of the table, his mother's attention, his brother looking rather pissed, he could get used to this life.

After dinner, Abe turned on the television and flipped through the channels as his mother and brother washed the dishes, cleared the table, and wrapped up the leftovers for his father. He stretched out on the family sofa and yawned. No fighting over food, no fighting over the remote control, no fighting over what to watch. How boring. After watching the local news, where they reported the final scores for today's games, he flipped around some more. Since he hadn't watched TV in so long, he didn't care what was on.

Shun, finished with his chores, came into the room and asked, "Wanna play some video games instead? Your choice."

"Sure. Baseball." Abe said as he got up to change the Wii game disc from Mario Kart to Wii Sports.

"That's a crappy game and you always beat me," Shun protested.

"Well, apparently I'm King for a Day." Abe smirked at his younger brother, then frowned as another thought hit him. "Hey, is there anything wrong with mom? She's acting kind of weird."

"Dunno, she just told me to be nice to you since you guys won today. Would make more sense to be nice if you lost, but whatever."

After a few rounds of baseball and boxing, with Abe crushing Shun mercilessly, they played a few rounds of tennis with Shun holding his own. Even though the games were just simulations, the movements were realistic enough for light training.

Once it got close to nine, Abe went back upstairs, while Shun stayed up to play some more. After brushing his teeth, he was ready to go to bed, but his mother was hovering by his bedroom door. "I'm here to tuck you in," she explained.

"I'm almost sixteen, not six!" Abe glared at her. "I'm just going to sleep."

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun, cutie-pie. Indulge your poor old mother."

Cutie-pie? She hadn't called him that since he was four – when he emptied his milk and cereal all over his baby brother. "Whatever," Abe muttered as he crept into bed.

His mother began to sing an old familiar lullaby:

_Sleep, little pigeon,  
And fold your wings,  
Little blue pigeon  
With velvet eyes;_

_Sleep to the singing  
Of mother-bird swinging  
Swinging the nest  
Where her little one lies._

_Away out yonder  
I see a star,  
Silvery star  
With a tinkling song;_

_To the soft dew falling  
I hear it calling  
Calling and tinkling  
The night along._

_In through the window  
A moonbeam comes,  
Little gold moonbeam  
With misty wings;_

_All silently creeping,  
It asks; "Is he sleeping  
Sleeping and dreaming  
While mother sings?"_

_But sleep, little pigeon,  
And fold your wings,  
Little blue pigeon  
With mournful eyes;_

_Am I not singing? --  
See, I am swinging --  
Swinging the nest  
Where my darling lies._

By the time Abe-san was done, her son was sound asleep. His usually angry face looked soft and peaceful. She smiled, rearranged his blanket, bent over, and kissed him lightly on the forehead, thinking about how cute he was when he was little. What the hell happened since then? How did he turn into such a demon? The reporter was right. It was her fault. She had not paid enough attention to her number one son. Well, that was about to change.

The next morning Abe was up and ready for practice after a blissful sleep where he dreamt again of crushing Musashino with that bastard Haruna on the mound. He was ready to heat up whatever leftovers were in the refrigerator, but to his surprise his mother was downstairs making him a fresh breakfast of okonomi-yaki, yakisoba, and miso soup. The sun hadn't come out yet, but his mother had already packed his lunch and snacks.

"Are you okay, mom?" Abe asked. After analyzing the situation, he came to the conclusion that his mother must be desperately ill and only had a short time to live and that's why she was being so nice to him.

"Me? Of course I am. I'm just making sure you're okay. I care about you. I really love you, you know." Her eyes misted over.

Her behavior was just too weird. What's with all that mushy stuff? "You're not going to die are you?" Abe asked bluntly.

"No! Whatever gave you that idea?"

"What about dad? Shun? Me?"

"No! Everyone's fine. Is it so weird to show my first borne son how much I love him?"

"Yes. Very, very weird." Abe shook his head and ate his breakfast quickly.

"No need to hurry, dear. I'll be driving you to school today."

"Why? It's just starting to get light outside and you never get up this early," Abe asked suspiciously. He decided that if no one was sick, then there had to be another reason his mother was acting so nice. Maybe she was going to demand that he dropped baseball, heaven forbid, and get a part time job. Maybe the family finances were in trouble.

"Oh, I just wanted to spend some time with you. It's been a while since we've talked."

"Uh," Abe grunted as he gulped down his food. "Are you guys getting divorced?" It was the next logical question.

"No! Everything's fine, really." She poured out two cups of green tea, then sipped her cup.

Abe downed his tea, burped, grabbed his backpack and lunch bag, and walked hurriedly out the door. His mother scrambled to follow him with her car keys.

"I can just bike like usual. I don't need you," Abe said rudely.

"Nonsense, I'm taking you," Abe-san said firmly. She grabbed his bike away from him and pointed at the car.

"How am I getting back without my bike?"

"Don't worry. I'll be picking you up, too." Abe-san smiled.

Abe frowned. All this attention from his mother was no longer a good thing.

"Do you have any friends outside of baseball? Any girls that you like?" Abe-san asked as they drove to the school.

Abe ignored her. He pretended to sleep in the backseat. His mother had wanted him to sit next to her, but he sullenly refused.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the field. Abe quickly got out with all his stuff (before the car came to a complete halt) and ran to the locker room. He was finally free.

But when he came out onto the field, to his horror, he found his mother staying for morning practice.

------------------------------

_Author's notes: The lullaby is something I got off the internet after a search for Japanese lullaby lyrics. I wish I has the melody, seems like a pretty song._


	15. How to Say No

**_Ch 15: How to Say No_**

"Hey Abe! Is that your mom?" Izumi looked over again at the dark-haired, middle-age woman in the stands who was waving in their direction.

"Yeah," Abe admitted reluctantly, without looking up. He focused on adjusting his shoelaces.

"What's she doing here?"

"Don't know. Don't care."

"That's really rude. She's your mother." Izumi smiled and waved back at Abe's mom.

"I'm not sure about that. She's been acting weird since I came home yesterday."

Their captain overheard them. "Your mom, too? My mom was acting kind of strangely." Hanai walked toward his two teammates, then decided to walk over and pay his respects to the fan in the stands.

"Good morning, Abe-san," Hanai said as he took off his cap and bowed.

_'What a wonderful respectful boy! Not like my son at all,_' Abe-san thought. "Good morning Azusa. I hope Taka is not giving you any trouble today."

"Oh, uh, no, everything's fine. How are you? Can I help you with anything?"

"No, no. I'm fine. I just wanted to show Taka my support. During a real game, I'm sure he doesn't notice me at all." Abe-san looked a bit perturbed at that.

"Well, it's great that you want to support him even during practice. I'm sure he'll appreciate it." Hanai, of course, knew that the catcher did not want his mother around, not that he blamed him - he felt the same way. But Hanai subconsciously wanted to irritate Abe just a bit to get back at him for annoying him so many times (like the first time they met when Abe had Mihashi get him on three straight outs, and like the time Abe cursed him before he drew the summer tournament lottery and he ended up drawing Tosei). "We'll be having practice after class, too. I hope you'll be around for that." Hanai secretly laughed to himself. _'Take that Abe!'_

"I'm sure I will. Give my regards to your mother. I'm sure she'd like to be here as well."

"Er, yes… Okay, we're starting practice now. See you later." Hanai bowed again before returning to his team.

"So, I see you and my mother are getting along really well," Abe said sarcastically upon his return. "You have a thing for older women?"

"Shut up!" Hanai blushed furiously. "Hey, at least she's better than my mother. She said she's here to show her support because you don't notice her during a game. I can't help but notice my mother. She so freakin' loud."

"Well, this sure isn't like her. If she went to Shun's practice, that wouldn't be so weird, but mine... So what's been strange about your mother?" Abe walked toward the line for batting practice.

Hanai followed and thought for a while before answering. "She's been… sort of…how should I put this… bipolar."

"Bipolar?"

"Yeah, it's like one minute she's all over me for talking back to her. Then she's like super nice and apologizing."

"Maybe it's menopause," Abe said bluntly.

"Are our mother's at that age?" Hanai's face turned deep red at the thought.

"Forget it. I don't want to think about it. It'll pass…probably."

"Yeah, well, she's been driving me more crazy than usual."

Just then, as Abe thought about letting it go, he heard his mother shout, "Hey! Excuse me, but my son needs to practice, too. In fact, I think he needs more practice than you. Can you take fewer swings?"

Tajima good-naturedly waved to Abe-san, ignored her request, and went back to focusing on his swing.

Abe looked around at the other team members. "Any of you guys notice your mother acting weird? Maybe it's a conspiracy. Maybe they got together and talked about us and came up with something crazy."

The other guys shook their heads, except Mihashi.

"M…my…m…mom…I… d... don't know…n...not sure. But she s…seems…n...not sure…," Mihashi finally uttered. Before Mihashi could explain any further, it was his turn to practice hitting sliders.

Abe turned to Sakaeguchi. "Hey, do me a favor. You're good at figuring out what the hell Mihashi means. Ask him what happened with his mother after yesterday's game."

"Why? What's going on?"

"It seems some of our mothers are conspiring to drive us crazy. They've been acting weird since yesterday.

"Conspire? Moms conspire?"

"Of course they do! Didn't your mother ever…" Abe stopped mid sentence when he remembered that poor Sakaeguchi had already lost his mother.

"I don't know. I never noticed. Funny how we don't pay much attention to our parents until they're gone. All the little things they do for us. I wish I had the chance to let my mom know how much I appreciated her." Sakaeguchi sighed, changing the atmosphere around them.

"Er, yeah. I guess you're right," Abe admitted, but he was not deterred in his quest to find out what was going on. "Anyway, just see what you can find out. I just can't seem to understand him."

Sakaeguchi agreed to help, while thinking how Abe just didn't have the patience to understand Mihashi. He waited until Mihashi was done with batting to ask him to practice tossing the ball with him. Mihashi happily agreed, flattered that someone as nice and capable as Sakaeguchi would ask to partner with him, and relieved that he didn't have to partner with Abe.

Sakaeguchi spoke calmly with Mihashi as they went to get their gloves. "I hear your mom's been acting… different?"

Mihashi nodded. Despite pauses and stutters and veering off topic, Sakaeguchi was able to piece together what happened…

*******************

Mihashi-san was pleased that her son Ren now had friends, and belonged to a team that acted almost like a surrogate family. Ren seemed happier than she had ever recalled. Even on his few visits home from Mihoshi, he didn't seem to be happy to be home, nor did he ever seem happy to return to Mihoshi. It was as if he had been living like an unwanted package with no valid address, just sent from placed to place, back and forth without any ability to do anything about it.

She wasn't truly aware of what Ren had gone through while he was at Mihoshi, until that reporter accused her of being an unfit parent. She tried her best, but she and her husband both worked, and Ren needed looking after, and Mihoshi was a much better school, and the excuses continued. If she had to do it over again, she would never have let him go. But then he would have been permanently tied to her apron strings, though she didn't cook, so maybe it was better that he went. Even here at the nearby elementary school, for those four years, he hadn't made a single friend. It wouldn't have made a difference if he went to middle school nearby, would it? His personality just attracted bullies.

He had friends now, she was sure of it. That energetic boy Tajima dropped by all the time. Or was he just there to mooch off of them? He liked to come for dinner and lunch whenever possible it seemed. She wondered if being from a large family meant you had to fight for food and being the runt of the litter, maybe he lost out to his older siblings. But Tajima-san had claimed that as the youngest of the family, he was spoiled . So that would mean he really was Ren's friend?

And what about that catcher and the captain? The Hanai boy seemed so respectful that time during Ren's birthday party. He invited her to join them and helped her set out the food. He couldn't be bullying Ren, could he? But what about that scene at the game? Was Azusa faking being Ren's friend after all? Was it just some misunderstanding?

Now the Abe boy she had reservations about. From what his mother said about him, he did sound like a big bully. Or was it just natural sibling squabbling she described? Ren was an only child, and so was she, so she didn't know what it was like to have a brother or sister. Would she be fighting with them all the time? Maybe he thought of Mihashi like a little brother. Maybe that wasn't a good thing. Maybe he was just a bully.

Her thoughts went back and forth, swirling incoherently until she didn't know what was the truth. In any case, she had to help Ren stand up for himself, stand up against bullies. The first proactive thing Mihashi-san did was to make a trip to the bookstore. She bought several titles recommended by the reporter, including "The Power of a Positive No."

When Ren returned from the team meeting after the Sakitama game, his mother was home waiting for him with a nice store bought assortment of tempura and pan fried udon. He dove in immediately.

Mihashi-san sat next to her son, but ate little. She waited until he was finished eating before she broached the sensitive subject. She had thought carefully about the game and what the reporter and the other parents had said. "Ren, you intentionally walked that big catcher each time today. Was that your idea?"

"Huh?" Ren gaped at his mother. What? His mother was asking him a baseball question? She didn't know anything about baseball. Was she upset about that heckler? Did someone mention something to her? Maybe it was one of the other parents…

Ren's mind went off in about ten different directions. He failed to answer. Mihashi-san repeated her question. She said it more firmly as if demanding an answer.

Finally, her son said, "A…Abe…"

"Were you guys that afraid of him? You were okay with that?" Mihashi-san did not add Risa's complaints: Isn't that like cheating? Isn't the whole point of the game to face the batter? A pitcher versus batter battle?

"I…I…um…d…don't want to get hit."

"But didn't you want to try?"

"Y…yes…b…but…winning…"

"I'm sorry. You're right. Winning is more important for the team, but do you ever disagree with your catcher? Do you ever … shake off his signs?" She had just learned the last term from her "Baseball 101" book.

Ren looked at his mother as though she had said something beyond blasphemous. "H…have to follow Abe's signs," he squeaked.

"Was there ever a time you felt you shouldn't?"

Her son nodded hesitantly.

"Did you say anything?"

He shook his head.

"And what happened?"

"I…g…got hit."

"It's not hard to say no and disagree. Even if the other person gets mad, just say why you disagree."

Ren shook his head. "C…can't. A…Abe gets mad…won't give m…signs."

"I just don't want anyone to… treat you unfairly." Mihashi-san tried to avoid the "b" word so as to not upset Ren, who probably didn't realize he was being bullied. She handed her son a book. "I know it's hard for you dear, but maybe this will help."

Ren tentatively took the book and tried to read the first page. _'Perhaps the single biggest mistake we make when we say No is to start from No. We derive our No from what we are against – the other's demand or behavior. A Positive No calls on us to do the exact opposite and base our No on what we are for. Instead of starting from No, start from Yes. Root your No in a deeper Yes – a Yes to your core interests and to what truly matters…'_

Ren's eyes crossed, glazed over, then rolled up in his head.

His mother caught him before he fainted. She shook him lightly. "Hey, are you okay?"

"N…not good w…books."

Mihashi-san sighed. It was going to be more difficult to get through to him than she thought. "Okay, forget the book, dear. Stand up and face me. I want you to yell at me. Yell 'no' as loud as you can."

Ren looked fearfully at her. Say "no" to his own mother? He couldn't do it.

Mihashi-san grabbed his shoulders firmly, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. "Say no!" She squeezed his shoulders. Even though she was a couple of inches shorter than her son, the way he made himself seem small, by slumping his shoulders, shrinking his neck, and lowering his head, made her seem several inches taller. "Say it!" She ordered again.

"N…no," he squeaked.

"Again!"

"No," he said in whisper.

"Again!"

"No," he said quietly.

"Again!"

"No," he said in an almost normal tone.

"Again!"

"No," he said in a moderate voice.

"Louder!"

"No," he said with his voice slightly raised.

"Say a bunch of no's all at once - keep saying it!"

Ren took a deep breath and released it as a string of no's. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no nonononnnononono…" The no's gradually became louder, but never reached a shout (only as loud as Abe's normal speaking voice, which was still quite loud), then they softened again as he ran out of breath.

"Not bad. You should do this every morning and at night when you wash up. Look at yourself in the mirror. Stand straight. Look into your eyes in the mirror. Pretend you're another person."

Mihashi thought of Abe's dark angry eyes piercing through him, stabbing his body. He began to twitch violently, then his body collapsed and he fell under the table.

"Oh my! Ren! Are you okay? Forget about it for now. Just go upstairs and get some rest." Her son definitely looked like he was done for the day, but she had to work on him tomorrow. She had to. She had to save him from himself.

*********************

It took Sakaeguchi all of morning practice, changing into street clothes, walking to their respective classes, and the lunch period, to piece together what happened last night at Mihashi's house. By the time he had enough details, he was exhausted. Still he faithfully reported to Abe what he had learned before they changed for afternoon practice.

"So, Mihashi's mom thinks I may be bullying Mihashi and she's trying to get him to stand up to me," Abe summarized, his voice rising in anger as he spoke.

"Ah, er, y…yes, th…that's how I understood it. Umm, sorry." Sakaeguchi hastily withdrew from Abe's vicinity. Tangible ire radiated from the catcher, in a ten foot radius. Sakaeguchi hated being the bearer of bad news. Everyone knew what happened to messengers.

"What's going on?" Tajima asked when he saw the looks on Abe's and Sakaeguchi's faces. Abe looked angrier than normal and Sakaeguchi looked more freaked out than usual.

Sakaeguchi quickly summarize how three of the mothers were acting strangely.

"Abe-san, Hanai-san and Mihashi-san?"

Sakaeguchi nodded.

"You know, I remember they were sitting together during the game. Then Risa interviewed them. First Hanai-san, then Mihashi-san and then Abe-san..."

Unfortunately for Tajima, Abe overheard him. The bad-tempered catcher grabbed the little third baseman by the collar. "What did you just say?"

"Hey, let go!" Tajima struggled to free himself. "I just said I saw Risa talking to your mom during the game yesterday. What's the big deal?"

Abe released him. That girl again! Bad enough she was messing with his life, that he could handle, but she was also messing with Mihashi. She was interfering in something she could not possibly understand - the relationship between catcher and pitcher. What if Mihashi's pitching were affected? What if Mihashi were to shake off his pitches?

How could he stop her? Obviously, she wouldn't listen to reason. He tried to talk to her last time after _that _article. He didn't want to pick a fight with a girl. And it would only prove her allegation that he was a bully. He had to find another way.

* * *

_Author's Notes: "The Power of a Positive No" is a real book. The excerpt is from the introduction._


	16. Counterstrike

**_Ch 16:_** **_Counterstrike_**

It was the last paper to be printed and distributed before the summer break. The clubroom was more hectic than usual as the members gathered together to discuss how to handle articles during the hiatus since they would have very limited access to the facilities. Writers and photographers would have to submit their work to the editors via email and articles would be published as part of the school website rather than distributed by paper. It was inconvenient, but better than being inactive for so many weeks. After all, who ever heard of a paper that was just published when it was convenient?

Risa had submitted her work early that morning. It should have been approved by now and the paper would be published before evening, ready for distribution the next morning - the last day of school. But to Risa's surprise, her fabulous article was rejected.

"This is a high school newspaper! Not the Nippon Inquirer!" her editor admonished. "We need an article about school spirit, something positive, not about the inequities of life!" Senior editor Matsumi Sanji handed her back the pages she submitted hours earlier. There were red marks, exclamation points and questions marks all over.

The tall bespectacled young man sighed and softened his tone. "It's a well written, but opinionated, article. You definitely know your baseball. But the fans don't want condemnation of intentional walks. Keep the strategy discussion, remove the negative comments, then it'll be fine."

Risa glared at him, but she kept quiet and nodded. "I'll make the edits now. It should be ready in ten-fifteen minutes."

"And another thing…" Her editor paused and cleared his throat as though he was uncomfortable delivering more bad news. "Please don't harass the players or their families. This is a high school paper, not the Tokyo Times. We're not looking for dirt and we're not investigating their private lives. There's no political scandal or possible embezzlement. We just want the box scores."

Risa zoned in on one word. "Harass? Who told you I was harassing them? I interviewed the players and a few of the moms, no harassment. I didn't stalk anyone or barge into their homes. So what kind of harassment are you talking about?" Risa unconsciously rose up on the tips of her toes to speak to the vertically enhanced boy on a somewhat more equal level.

"You know a reporter has to protect his sources." Matsumi smiled mysteriously. He shrugged his thin shoulders dismissively, then sat down and turned his attention to the computer screen where he was working on the final layout.

"Fine, don't tell me I already know."

"Do you? How?" He turned back to her, interested in her keen deductive reasoning.

"I only interviewed three parents. Mihashi-san, Hanai-san, and Abe-san. No way could it be Mihashi or his mother. They're both total wimps and wouldn't have the guts to complain. Hanai-san would go directly to the principal or VP and not to a lowly student editor, unless it was one of them who informed you…" Risa studied her superior's face and dismissed the possibility. "Her son, the captain would prefer to keep a good relationship with the paper and is unlikely to do anything to antagonize the reporters. Abe-san's personality makes it also unlikely, and again as a parent, would go directly to a school official. It's that Abe guy, the catcher, wasn't it?!" Risa slammed her right palm against the table. She could tell by her editor's reaction that she was dead on.

The other club members all turned their heads and stared in their direction. Matsumi stood back up and raised his hands. "All right people, get back to work. We have a deadline to meet!"

His staff refocused their attention. They were used to outbursts, not only from Risa, but other enthusiastic reporters. You had to be on the pushy side to be a successful member of the club. There were frequent arguments on what to publish, which articles would go on the front page, and dissenting opinions on movie reviews.

Risa waited for everyone to turn away before she continued in a lower voice. "What exactly did he say to you?" she asked. "I have a right to know the charges."

"Look, this is not a trial. I was just told that you were interfering with the baseball club's strategies. Just stay away from family…"

"You can't believe that thug! Did he threaten you? Is this why…"

"Look, Risa, I think you're a great writer. In fact, when I graduate, you're one of the people I expect will take over as the club president. Then I suppose you can pretty much do whatever you want, unless the principal cracks down on you. But for now, you have to show me you're a team player. After that first article, you should've known what to expect." He took off his glasses, stared her in the eyes and smiled disarmingly. Few girls could resist him when he wanted to pour on the charm. He always knew exactly what to say. For someone as ambitious as Risa, he had to let her think that she could be the senior editor.

His words were right on target. Whether Risa truly believed him or not, it didn't matter. Just the possibility of attaining his position was enough. So Risa rewrote her article, the same way she had to rewrite her first article, without all the criticisms, and made it a "rah-rah-go-team-go" type article, all the while thinking of what she could do next, now that she was banned from speaking to family members.

The next morning, the paper was ready for distribution. Instead of being proud to have another article with her byline, Risa was still fuming on her way to class when she saw Abe, Hanai, and Mizutani. She ran up to Abe, ignored the other two, and unleashed her fury.

"Communist! Fascist! Dictator! You think you can control the press? You think you can suppress the truth? Maybe just this once, but it won't be long before…."

"I don't know what the hell you're taking about," Abe said coolly, iterating her words from their first confrontation.

"I bet you don't. Go ahead and hide the truth, you coward. One day the truth will prevail! And it'll come sooner than you think." Risa stormed off as the bell rang for the first period.

"What was that all about? Hanai asked, staring at the retreating fuming figure. "What truth?"

"And what's the difference between a communist and a fascist? Is that going to be on the next test?" Mizutani was worried - history was not his strongest subject. He fell asleep at least three times a week during modern history class.

"Nothing and don't know," Abe said with a sly grin. "I just put a damper on little miss wannabe Pulitzer."

"What's a Pulitzer?" Literature of any sort was also not high on Mizutani's list.

"It's a…whatever. Don't worry about it. In fact, we don't have to worry about that nosy reporter any more," Abe said with satisfaction.

------------------------------------


	17. The Cheerleaders

**_The Cheerleaders_**

The game against Kounan was on the glorious first day of the summer break. Usually, around this time of year, Risa would be in a good mood. Despite being a top student, she hated school and its rules and restrictions and boring uninspired teachers and ignorant classmates. Summer allowed her to do what she really wanted, which was to catch up on her hobbies (reading and writing) and perhaps pick up another skill like knitting and crocheting, or drawing and painting. There was always something to do on her own while her peers complained of summer boredom (vegetating in front of the summer reruns and playing mind numbing video games). Then there was the family vacation to look forward to, usually in the latter part of August.

Last year, there was no such vacation to her dismay. Instead, because her older brother was playing in the Newcomers Tournament, the "family" (which did not include her) "elected" to stay home and have a "staycation" (a stupid euphemism for no vacation at all). Where was her promised weeklong trip to Kyoto where she could visit ancient sacred temples and nearby ninja villages? Instead, she was stuck in a lowly suburb of Tokyo, where it was hot and humid all summer without accompanying greenery.

But this summer she was looking forward to the promised postponed vacation. She also had a list of articles she planned to research and write for the school paper in addition to covering the baseball games. Topics included: "Uniforms in Public Schools – Pros and Cons," "Disparity of Athletic and Academic College Scholarships," and " Value of an Education Abroad." So now she should have been in a relatively good mood, if not for the issue with her last article - thanks to that infuriating catcher.

Risa arrived earlier as usual to the stadium. To her surprise, the stands were already half full, with many students from Nishiura. Apparently the first game of the day had ended early with Bijou Dai Sayama winning with a called game in the seventh inning, which would make them Nishiura's opponents if they should win today. She saw that the Nishiura cheer squad was already set up and ready to trumpet, bang the drum, and…

Cheerleaders? Since when did a little baseball team of first years have cheerleaders? Well, there were only two of them, and they looked like they were probably first years. In fact, she recognized them as friends of the manager Shinooka. (Risa made a note to have a talk with the manager. She was hard to catch as Shinooka was always running errands for the team.) The two cheer girls wore tanks tops with the school colors and logo, and short, short skirts with short, short socks. _'How humiliating! They've turned back the clock on woman's rights like sixty years! How can they debase themselves like that? Look at those guys, they're practically drooling!'_

If there was one thing that Risa hated more than jocks, that would be cheerleaders: Girls who preened themselves and cared only about their looks and snagging a hot boyfriend; Heavily made-up snooty girls who looked down on plain, intelligent girls like herself.

"Excuse me. I'm Sakai Risa from the school paper." Risa daintily clasped her hands in front of her and bowed to the Nishiura's ouendan leader. "You're Hamada, right? You're in charge?" she asked the tall blonde boy in a generic winter school uniform.

He turned his attention from the two blushing cheer girls to the conservatively dressed female reporter. Risa was wearing a blue skirt just past her knees with knee high socks, sneakers, and a short sleeve pink blouse. She wore no makeup or jewelry, nor anything that proclaimed her support for Nishiura. There was a backpack on her back from which she retrieved a small notebook and pen.

"Hi! Yes, I'm Hamada. I guess I'm kind of in charge, heh-heh." He rubbed the back of his head partly in embarrassment and partly because he was nervous about the reporter possibly interviewing him. He had heard contradictory things from Izumi and Tajima who were in his homeroom.

"Do you mind - I'd like to interview some members of your cheer squad," Risa said pleasantly. She put on her best, most innocent smile.

"No problem, the game won't start for a while. Umm, ladies first?" Hamada gestured toward the two cheerleaders.

"Us?!" they said in unison.

"Yes, please." Risa smiled at them, hiding her true feelings. "You guys look great! I just need a minute of your time."

The two girls nodded shyly then followed her to an empty bench. They sat down and placed their pompoms beside them.

"So, you guys are friends with the manager, Shinooka Chiyo, right?' Risa started jotting down some notes.

"Yes, I'm Ogawa, Mia," said the tall thin brunette girl. She tugged at her skirt as it rode up when she sat down.

"I'm Tomoi, Ayano," said the pretty shorter girl. "Chiyo is in our class."

Risa immediately disliked Ayano. She obviously dyed and curled her hair - it was auburn and wavy. She wore too much lipstick and mascara. She looked like an over painted doll, while the other girl was rather plain and too thin to be attractive. "Oh really? Are any of the baseball team members in your class?" Risa asked. Of course once she knew they were in Shinooka's class, she knew which players were in their class. She just wanted to get them to give her info.

"Umm, let's see, there's Mizutani, Hanai, and Abe." Ayano counted on her fingers.

Risa noted the order. "Are you two the only cheer girls?" Two seemed like such an insignificant number to Risa. There really should be at least three to give it some credibility, in her appraisement.

Mia nodded. "Our sempai aren't interested in baseball, or cheering out in the hot sun."

"So what made you two want to be cheerleaders?"

"We're members of one of the dance clubs and we just wanted to dance and show our support for the school," Mia explained.

"Really? No other reason?" Risa gave them her knowing, penetrating stare.

"What do you mean?" Ayano stared down at her short socks, feeling rather exposed.

"Well, what do you actually know about baseball? Can you tell me the difference between a sac bunt, safety bunt and a squeeze bunt?"

"Er…bunt?" Ayano looked up with confusion in her eyes.

"That's like when they sort of tap the ball instead of hitting it," explained Mia.

"Oh, I see…why wouldn't they want to hit it? Isn't that the whole point?"

"Umm… not sure." Mia shrugged.

Risa retrained from calling them idiots. How could they be cheerleaders for a sport they knew little about? Was it just to show off their legs and meet jocks as stupid as themselves?

"It's fun though, isn't it?" Risa strung them along for a while longer.

The girls nodded.

"And some of those players are pretty cute. Nothing like a guy in a tight fitting uniform." Risa smiled suggestively.

"Oh yes! But…er… it's nothing like that." Mia backtracked.

"Isn't it? You can tell me, off the record of course. Just girl talk." Risa dropped her voice down to a whisper, then leaned in closer, suggesting a secret conspiracy.

"Well…the captain, he's pretty tall and well built…" Mia blushed, looked down, and made a temple with her fingertips.

"And you know the umm… guy on the other side of the field…he's pretty cute." Ayano blushed, too, and looked away.

Of course the two girls knew their names - they were just too embarrassed to say them. Hanai and Mizutani were also in their class. It made sense. They were able to get a better look at those two in the classroom, where they weren't wearing uniforms.

"Yeah, they are pretty hot," Risa encouraged, trying to put the girls at ease. "In fact, I think you guys would make great couples."

The girls grinned and giggled.

"And the one with the freckles on his cheeks is not bad either," Ayano admitted.

"And the one with the freckles on his nose," added her counterpart.

More giggles.

"You mean Izumi and Tajima? They're all pretty cute aren't they? Except for that shortstop Suyama," Risa prompted.

"Yeah, he's ugly," Ayano agreed and laughed guiltily.

"There's one with a funny nose, too," Mia added.

"Ha, ha you mean Oki. Yeah, and the thirdbase coach looks like a nerd and the second baseman's ears stick out." Risa laughed raucously – she was really getting into raking over the guys. Criticizing people was one of her favorite pastimes. "Well, what about the catcher, Abe? He's in your class, right?" Risa finally got to the person of interest.

"He's scary!" Ayano unconsciously brought her arms together for protection.

"He's always yelling in class for no reason." Mia shook her head disapprovingly.

"He's always calling Mizutani a 'useless idiot' in class. And Mizutani's so nice!" Ayano said defensively of her crush.

"And he's always arguing with Hanai about baseball stuff. You can hear him throughout the entire classroom. Annoying!" Mia added.

The two girls looked at each other and huffed. With Abe around, how could they get closer to the other two? Too bad Shinooka had proclaimed she wasn't interested in anyone on the team. Then it could be three for three without an extra wheel. Then their eyes lit up simultaneously. They looked at each other and smiled.

"Hey, umm…Risa, is it?" Mia said hesitantly. "Would you be interested in a mixer? A triple date sort of thing?

"What do you mean?" Risa felt the hairs on the arms and back of her neck rise up.

"Well, since I'd like to go out with Hanai and Ayano would like to be with Mizutani…How 'bout you and Abe…"

"No way! I'd rather dig my own grave, jump in and bury myself in dirt." Risa's face turned redder than a salary man's face after a night of social drinking with important clients.

"Uh, oh, sorry… it was just a thought. Bad idea, sorry." Risa had such a wild look, Mia was afraid she'd stuff the pompom down her throat.

Risa took a deep breath to recover from the insult. "What about Shinooka? Three of you, three of them, perfect, right?"

"She claims she's not interested in any of the guys." Ayano sighed. She had hoped Risa would be amenable to the plan, but that Abe was a hard sell.

"Well, you guys can just confess to the other two. You don't need me…"

"Oh no! We're too embarrassed to talk to them. Even Shinooka rarely talks to them in class," said Ayano. "We don't know how to approach them. All they talk about is baseball and we don't know that much about it so…" Ayano and Mia had hoped that if someone as outspoken and knowledgeable as Risa were to join them, socializing would be much less awkward.

"You're telling me that they don't talk about anything else? Nothing else? The news, music, TV shows, movies? Nothing?" Risa was not surprised at their ignorance and lack of social consciousness. They were just jocks after all.

"All they do is sleep, eat and talk about sports in class. Well, Mizutani likes to listen to music on our breaks, but the other two…" Mia shook her head and sighed. It was like the girls were invisible She had an older brother just like them, too.

The two girls now looked forlornly at their abandoned pompoms. Risa noted how they didn't seem like the typical cheerleaders she had encountered. They actually seemed rather nice and shy and uncomfortable showing so much skin. She decided to cut them some slack. It would be better to befriend them and have some sort of an inside track now that she could no longer approach the players' families.

"But that's beside the point." Risa went back to her chipper voice. "So what kind of cheers or moves are you guys doing?"

The two girls were happy to change the subject from their sad nonexistent love lives.

"Well, we both like hip hop so we're going to try to incorporate some moves like that." Mia made a few moves with her arms and ended up crossing them in front of her chest.

"That's pretty… innovative."

"The cheers are pretty standard though. We haven't come up with anything new and different," said Ayano. "Neither of us is good at poetry."

"Cheers are poems?"

"Well, yeah they have to rhyme right?"

"Hmm, I suppose they are. Never thought about it like that." Risa almost laughed. To think that something as lowly as a cheer…it was ridiculous.

"Hey you're a writer - maybe you can write us an original cheer," Mia suggested.

"Yeah, that'll be way cool!" her friend agreed.

"How would you like it? In the form of a haiku or something?" Risa asked sarcastically.

"Hmm… a haiku… that might be interesting…but haiku's are gentle, aren't they? You can't really belt it out, can you?" Mia thought how a haiku could lend artistry to their moves.

"Well… a haiku is composed of three lines. The first with five syllables, the second with seven syllables and the third with five syllables," explained Risa. "It's supposed to express a mood, but…how's this:

_ Everyone cheer!_

_ Nishiura go team go!_

_ Victory today!"_

"Hey that's great! We can totally use that." Mia started to say the lines to herself, committing them to memory.

"It doesn't rhyme, but a haiku doesn't have to rhyme, right?" asked Ayano, who thought good cheers and poems should always rhyme.

"No it doesn't. It just has to have the required number of lines and syllables," said Risa patiently.

"All right! Let's try it, Mia!"

To Risa's surprise, the two girls picked up their pompoms, and with synchronized semi-hip-hop moves, they shouted out Risa's ad hoc haiku.

Risa was genuinely touched. "Hey, that was great," she said sincerely. Risa had originally meant it as a joke, but now she was honored that the two girls thought so much of her silly poem to use it as their cheer. They weren't so bad after all.

"Well, you guys have fun out there. Support the team! Go Nishiura!" Risa smiled. She had to admit feeling a little bit caught up in their excitement, now that she had contributed something.

* * *

_Next up: Hamada and his friends._


	18. The Ouendan

_Author's Notes: Sorry for the long delay between posts, but was on vacation for a couple of weeks and have decided to finally work on two novels for publishing purposes. So, of course, those take precedence. But I do want to finish this story and have the next four chapters mapped out. _

**_The Ouendan_**

There was only a little time left until the start of the game, so Risa decided to interview Hamada and his two friends simultaneously. It wasn't as if they were that important anyway. Hamada, she had learned, was in the same class as Izumi, Tajima, and Mihashi, and had known the pitcher back in primary school. The other two were second year students and probably didn't know the team members that well anyway.

'_It's almost 90 degrees today! What's wrong with them? How can they wear that in this heat? I sure wouldn't want to be smelling them in a little while. Being a fan is one thing, being crazy is something else!'_ she thought as she observed them as they went through their cheers in their long sleeve black winter uniforms.

"So let's start off with some introductions," Risa prompted, "I'm Sakai, Risa from the school paper." She looked at the enthusiastic blonde. "You're Hamada, Yoshirou, oudendan leader."

Hamada thrust out his chest, rubbed the back of his head, and smiled while blushing.

"And you two are…?" Risa looked at the dark haired boy and the bespectacled boy with a weak goatee. '_Unimportant,' _she thought to herself.

"Kajiyama, Riki," said the one with glasses and short spiky blonde hair.

"Umehara, Keisuke," said the other, generic looking boy.

They both bowed stiffly in unison.

"All right, let's start. You two are in your second year, and Hamada was left back," Risa said bluntly. She did not approve or sympathize with people who were so academically weak they had to repeat a grade.

"Ah, well, that's no big deal. Not all of us can be smart." Hamada shrugged. It was better that the reporter thought he was an idiot than to have her dig around and find out about his family circumstances.

Risa, though irritated, ignored his downplay of intelligence. "Hamada, you were friends with Mihashi back in elementary school?"

"We lived in the same neighborhood and played baseball together with other kids in the area, but then Mihashi moved in second grade."

"Was he always so… timid?"

"Yes, he's always been rather shy, but he's a good guy. We had a lot of fun back then." Hamada smiled as he remembered inviting Mihashi to join his gang and giving him his first glove.

"Mihashi was shy, but was he…phobic? I mean he seems scared of people. I know as a reporter some people may find me a bit intimidating, but he acted like a cornered kitten." Risa recalled how he practically melted in his seat when she had attempted to interview him.

"It seems he got worse over the years. When we met here, he didn't remember me right off, and even after I reminded him, he was still really shy, but now he's better. We're like what we used to be. It just takes him a while to warm up to someone." It wasn't quite true. Although Mihashi spoke more naturally to him now, there was still something off, like there was a wall between them and he had to lean over to talk to Mihashi. It wasn't like when they were little when shy little Mihashi ran around laughing freely.

"So are you all big baseball fans? Since you were little?" Risa addressed the group this time.

"I played ever since I could walk. I used to pitch but then I developed an elbow problem. So now I just play basketball for fun," said Hamada.

Risa perked up. "Elbow injury? Did you have that looked at by a doctor? Most of those problems can be straightened out when you're young."

"Ah, well, umm, it's not a big deal," Hamada said evasively.

"It is a big deal if you have to stop pitching because of it." Risa pressed on, her reporter's sense tingled.

Riki cut in, hoping to detour Risa from prying into Hamada's family life. "Actually, I wasn't much of a baseball fan, or of any sport. I joined to help Hamada out. He was desperate to get a fan club together."

"Yeah, me too," said Keisuke. "But when we started attending the games, and some of the practices, we were really impressed at how hard these guys worked."

"At first the two of us were really intimidated. You know how joc…I mean how athletes usually are…"

"But these guys are really nice! They're not like what you'd expect at all." Keisuke recalled his encounters with jocks in middle school, who made fun of has art work. One even went so far as to rip up a drawing of a girl he liked. It took him a long time to get over his fear of jocks. It helped that the Nishiura team was all first years. That made them less intimidating.

"Maybe that's because they're already friends with Hamada," Risa pointed out cynically, temporarily distracted from Hamada's issue. "Maybe if you were some random kid…"

"No! No, that's not the case at all. If you've actually talked to them, you'd realize that," Hamada said defensively.

"And now we're serious fans of the baseball team," added Riki.

"Even if Hamada quit, we'd still be here," Keisuke insisted fervently.

Risa raised an eyebrow. "What…dedication. But maybe if you guys spent less time at sporting events and more time studying, you wouldn't be held back or you'd have better grades. College exams are coming up sooner than you think."

"No problem," said Hamada, "there's no way I'm going to college." He grinned stupidly.

"That's a year away and grades aren't everything," Keisuke pointed out. "I'll be an art student so my portfolio is more important."

"Studying without taking a break for fun is meaningless. Everything in balance. A wise man once said, "All work and no play…"

"What, planning on majoring in philosophy?" Risa suggested, since guys with goatees were always pretentious.

"How'd you know?" asked Riki.

Risa coughed. "Well, I guess you don't need to work hard if you're going to major in something as useless as that."

Riki suddenly looked downcast. He knew a philosophy major was akin to applying for unemployment. His parents had also told him as much, but there was little else that interested him and he couldn't bear to think of being a regular restricted salary man.

"So you two are willing to wear long sleeve winter uniforms and cheer in hot humid weather just because Hamada asked you to?"

"That's what friends are for," said Riki.

Keisuke nodded in agreement.

"Really? No other reason? All this time spent at games, don't your girlfriends complain?"

The three boys looked down at their shoes.

"I see…so isn't one of the reasons for this fan club to attract girls?"

They all turned red. "Ah, ha-ha," laughed Hamada nervously. His friends elbowed him to stay quiet and not admit anything more to the reporter.

"Well, looks like the game is about to start. How about you all pose for some photos and I'll be done." Risa was satisfied she got her point across and wanted to wrap things up.

The three boys were more happy to end the interview. They called over the two cheerleaders for the photoshoot. Risa had them pose in various cheer positions. The cheer girls felt a bit self conscious at first, but after a few shots they happily posed with the rest of the team members.

Afterwards, Hamada ventured to ask, "Say, would you like to join us? We could use another cheerleader." Despite her hardcore personality, the reporter could be quite cute in a cheerleader outfit and you can never have too many girls.

Risa would rather have been tossed from the bleachers.


	19. Risa the Spy

**_Risa the Spy_**

As the Nishiura ouendan geared up to cheer as loud as they could, Risa moved to sit somewhere less noisy. She sat in an empty section, but after a while she found herself surrounded by the Bijou team.

What was even worse was her older brother, Riku, was on the team.

"Hey, oni-chan," he called. "You here for Nishiura?"

Risa bristled at the insult. He always called her "demon" when their parents weren't around. Of course, he never admitted it. He claimed it was just poor pronunciation on his part and he meant nothing by it. Risa knew better, but for today, she would play nice.

"Oh, no, dear brother. I was here to support Bijou. Too bad you didn't get to play today." Risa did not see the game, but she saw the box scores. She smiled sarcastically at the tall thin boy.

"Yeah, well, it's the last summer for the seniors. I'll get my due soon enough." Riku shrugged off his sister's attempt to annoy him. He was used to it. It would take a lot more for her to get to him.

Since Bijou was an all boys school, any passably pretty girl was immediately the center of attention. The other Bijou players crowded around them. "Hey, Riku, who's that babe? Your girlfriend?" asked several of his teammates.

That got to Riku. He gagged involuntarily. "No way in hell! That's sick! What's wrong with you guys? Don't you notice the family resemblance? Oh, wait. My oni-chan has horns and I don't." Riku laughed hysterically while Risa looked like a overheated pressure cooker about to explode.

"That's terrible thing to say about your sister, especially one so pretty." A big guy with glasses bowed to Risa respectfully. "I apologize for these guys. Let me introduce myself. I'm Makoto Wada, captain of these idiots."

"Don't be so nice to her. She's probably spying for our next opponents. She goes to Nishiura," Riku warned.

"Spy? Me? Like I know anything about baseball." Risa laughed a silly empty headed laugh and tossed her hair. "I was just here to support my big brother. Go Bijou!"

When it comes to a pretty girl, most guys are pretty stupid, so they believed her rather than their own teammate.

"Hi, I'm Shou. Do you know Sakaeguchi? He's my friend from middle school. He's Nishiura's second baseman," said a small numberless first year.

"Mmm…Sorry. He's not in my class, so I'm afraid I don't know who he is. I think there are a couple of guys in my class who are on the team, but I don't remember." Risa lied easily. She had always been good at that.

The first years on the Bijou team started talking about how the Nishiura team was all composed of first years and how if they had gone there they could have started.

"Makoto! Take care of those rowdy freshman! And you juniors and seniors, pay attention. We'll be playing the winner of this game!" ordered a young man with his hair gathered in a silly little ponytail.

Risa looked behind her. Sitting at the top bench was the Bijou coach, the guy who just shouted at his players, and another guy. The other guy looked big and mean, but he wasn't wearing a collared shirt like everyone else on the team. She wondered if he was a coach or just a fan. She turned her attention back to the boys around her as the Bijou team settled down to watch and analyze the Nishiura game against Kounan. Risa listened closely as they discussed the Nishiura players.

"So what are you still doing here?" her brother asked. "If you don't care about baseball, or the Nishiura team, and your dear brother's team is done for today, why don't you just leave."

"Oh, I want to keep you company for a while, dear brother. I don't get to see you very often anymore. You're always away at practice or training camp. Don't you know how much I miss you?" Risa said innocently.

Of course, Riku knew his sister better than that - her sweet behavior was just an act, but before he could order her out, his captain put his arm around him. "Aww, what a sweet sister you have. You should be nicer to her, Riku. Let her stay. There's no girls at Bijou. We can use a fan."

"She's not a f..."

"Thank you so much, Captain! I'll do my best to root for you guys in the next round!" Risa said enthusiastically. "By the way, who's that back there with your coach?"

"That's Nakazawa Roku, our assistant coach. He's friends with Coach Takii back from when they went to Tosei. He's really tough, but he really knows his stuff. He's been a great help." But Makoto secretly disapproved of the recent decision to use Takeshi instead of Naomasa as the regular catcher. He didn't understand the decision. Naomasa was the better catcher and hitter and he knew the pitchers better. He had a feeling Roku was responsible for the coach's decision and there was a surreptitious reason for it.

Risa caught the slight tension in his voice when he spoke of Roku. She suspected he didn't like him much. No, it was more than that. It wasn't just personal. It had to do with the team. She made a mental note to question her brother more fully.

************

Meanwhile, Nishiura scored a run in the first inning, and two more in the fourth. As Abe rounded the bases in the fourth inning, he happened to see where the Bijou team was sitting. There they were – having changed from their uniforms to their collared shirts. Abe's sharp eyes instinctively zoomed in on the girl. The reporter - what was she doing there? She was sitting with them, talking to them! Consorting with the enemy! Was she giving away Nishiura's secrets? She was a spy after all!

Abe was so distracted, Kounan came back with three in the fifth. During the ground maintenance, Abe was in a foul mood. He had been hoping for another called game, but he had underestimated their opponents. No, he was distracted by the thought of that reporter talking to the Bijou team. What did she know? Momoe had warned the team about talking to her, but Tajima had a big mouth and Mihashi could be tricked or bullied into revealing information. He would have to have a talk with that girl. But first…

"Hey, Mihashi!"

Mihashi jumped like a squirrel reacting to a barking dog. He turned shakily to his catcher. _'Abe's mad because I got hit and let up runs and now we're tied…'_

"You been talking to that reporter?'

"Re…reporter?" Mihashi thought hard. Someone had mentioned that reporters might be coming around once they advanced in the tournament. They assumed Momoe would be the one they'd interview. Was a reporter interested in talking to him? The mere thought of such a possibility almost caused him to faint.

"Hey, you okay? Drink some more water. You looked flushed," Abe said, forgetting his anger for the moment.

Mihashi moved to obey him, but he clung desperately to the water cooler. His headed twitched back and forth, looking for the imaginary report.

_'Geez…he's so weird. It's impossible to talk to him.'_ Abe tuned his attention to Tajima instead. "Hey, Tajima. You been talking to that reporter?"

"Who? Risa? Sure."

"I saw her talking to the Bijou team. She know anything she shouldn't?"

"You mean have I leaked any strategic stuff to her? I don't think so. We don't talk about baseball."

"Good. Keep it that way," he warned. But then he thought, '_Don't talk about baseball? What else is there? What could he possibly have to say to that hack?_'Still, his suspicion wouldn't go away. It nagged at him through the rest of the game, through changing to his regular clothes, through leaving the stadium.

As they waited for the car, Hanai received a call. There was a hitch with the car and they would have to bring the equipment to the parking lot. Most of the team members carried what equipment they could to the parking lot while Mihashi, at Abe's order, was left behind to watch the remaining bags. Abe walked with Tajima at first, but then out of the corner of his eye, he saw something behind him.

"You go ahead with the others. There's something I have to take care of first," Abe said as he walked back. Tajima shrugged and ran ahead. Abe was walking too slow anyway.

Abe had seen Risa walking with one of the Bijou guys. He was not one of the regulars, but Abe even recognized the guys on the bench. She was definitely too chummy with him. She was definitely a spy, or at least a double agent.

He walked up to the two and said, "There's something I have to tell you."

"Is this guy your…" Riku began to say.

"No." Risa said to Riku, then she turned to Abe. "What do you want?" said Risa warily.

"I've got a scoop for you." Abe decided offering a carrot was the best way to get her alone.

"A scoop?" Risa perked up. "Right. Sorry, Riku, see you later."

"Have fun oni-chan." Riku waved and walked away, leaving his little sister in the hands of a guy who looked like he wanted to kill her, but that was her problem. He could understand the feeling. He was sure Risa had done something offensive.

"Oni?" Abe repeated. That was a good nickname for her.

"Nothing. So what do you have for me?"

To her surprise, Abe grabbed her shoulders, hard, and shook her. "What have you been telling them?" he demanded.

A sudden fear gripped her. It was happening again. She was being bullied, but she wasn't the same girl she was in middle school. "What? What are you talking about?" Risa tried to pull to away but Abe's strong fingers dug deeper in to her.

"You know. Our opponents. Bijou. You were talking to them throughout the game. And now with that guy…"

"You think I've been telling them your secrets? Guess what – I was trying to do you guys a favor, but forget it!" Risa twisted under his grip.

Abe finally released her. "Sorry, I got carried away," he muttered, rather insincerely.

Risa rubbed her shoulders and glared at him. Before she left, she issued a warning. "You know what, here's a tip, they're big and mean and you're going to get crushed!"

* * *

_Author's Notes: Next up, the romance starts, sort of..._


	20. A Truce

_Author's Notes: Warning: Manga spoilers past the current scanlations._

**_A Truce_**

Risa sat there, stunned. Over, just like that. The crowd around her soon thinned out, but she found herself still unable to move. Nishiura had lost 11-6 so now Bijou would be moving on to the next round. But it wasn't just that. It wasn't just the loss. It was how they lost. An injury. A very suspicious looking injury. The Bijou runner tried to take out the Nishiura catcher. The runner must have had fifty pounds on the puny catcher. It did not look like an accident. From what her brother told her, Bijou had studied Nishiura closely. They probably knew Abe was the only decent catcher and the one responsible for the pitch calling, practically the most important person on the team. A prime target.

She stared at the dugout. Teenage boys with tear stained faces. What was there to cry about? It was just a game. A stupid game of no importance. The outcome would not change society in the least. So why did she feel so bad for them? Maybe she just felt bad for herself now that she had one less byline. It shouldn't be over just like that. What would she write about now?

The stadium was now practically empty. Both teams and their fans had packed up and gone back to either celebrate or sulk in despair. Risa sighed and headed toward the exit. There must be something she could do.

*****

Abe, accompanied by his mother and Momoe, immediately visited a doctor after the game to have his leg examined. After multiple x-rays and prodding and stretching, the prognosis was better than expected, basically a knee sprain, but the doctor still ordered complete rest for the next two days and no baseball for another two weeks. To make things worse, the newcomer's tournament was in two weeks and the coach decided that he should miss it to ensure a full recovery. Still, there was the fall tournament to look forward to when they returned to school.

So while the rest of the team was at a meeting, called by Hanai to discuss setting a common goal for the team, Abe was stuck at home, alone. His parents and brother were out running errands, leaving him behind with a pitcher of lemonade and an egg omelet sandwich, and leaving the front door unlocked in case his friends should visit. Abe sat in the living room with his leg propped up on the footstool, thinking about what he was missing and all that he was about to miss. '_Damn those Bijou bastards!'_ he thought angrily as the door bell sounded.

"Come in! Door's open!" yelled Abe, expecting Hanai or Tajima to enter first, followed by a few of his other teammates. But to his surprise it was the last person he wanted to see. '_That annoying reporter._ _Why the hell is she here?' _He was in no mood to spar, but he couldn't throw her out either.

Risa walked over to him, ignoring his glare. She looked down at his bandaged leg.

"What do you want?" Abe asked brusquely. He felt vulnerable. She had two working legs. What if she wanted revenge for the way he treated her last time? She could dump the lemonade on his head and run out the door and he couldn't even get up to chase her.

But to his surprise, the girl took a deep breath and stuck out her right hand. "Truce," she said.

Abe looked at her outstretched hand suspiciously. She took a step closer and almost shoved it in his face. Finally, he took it, but tentatively, expecting a joy buzzer or some other practical joke. She squeezed his hand in a firm businesslike handshake. Abe stared down at the small hand in his, noting how white her skin was, as if she rarely went out in the sun, and how soft her hand was, except for the large callous on her right middle finger. It was different than Mihashi's hands, which were calloused all over from gripping the ball in different ways for his various pitches. And her fingers were small and slender, and ink stained. He found himself strangely reluctant to let go of that exquisite hand, maybe because it was the first girl's hand he had held since first grade, when the boys were forced to hold hands with the girls.

Risa pulled her hand back, not noticing the distracted look on Abe's face. "I'm sorry about your injury. I should've said something. I…"

"What do you mean?" Abe interrupted. The thought of her being a spy raced through his head again. He had momentary let his guard down, but now all the thoughts of her pale hand had disappeared. He glowered at her again.

"I had a feeling something was up with Bijou, but I never imagined they'd go to these lengths." She took a few steps away from him and began to scan his living quarters. No doubt analyzing how his abode.

"You think they took me out on purpose?" The thought had occurred to him as well.

"Don't you? Here, take a look at this. I plan to send it to the sponsors and rules committee." Risa handed Abe on what looked to be official Nishiura High School stationery. He wondered if she were authorized to use it and if she had forged it.

Abe took the letter and quickly read through the allegation charging the Bijou catcher of poor sportsmanship and of causing intentional injury. There were also citations of other questionable incidents in the Bijou catcher's past. Abe shook his head and tore up the paper.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Risa grabbed the pieces from his hands.

"It was an accident. We reviewed the play in slow motion. My leg just came down wrong and I sprained my knee. No conspiracy, okay?" That wasn't how he felt, but Abe just didn't want to dwell on it. He had to focus on getting better.

"So what? So what if it was an accident? Don't you want to get back at him? I can make a lot of trouble for him." Risa smiled at the thought.

Abe couldn't help but laugh, the first time since the loss. It was tempting, very tempting, to take revenge, but he couldn't waste time or energy on that. "And why should you care so much?" he asked.

"Well…" she hesitated. "I don't like bullies. Even if I think you're one, that guy is even worse. It's my mission in life to protect the weak. Not that you're weak…but it's all relative." She shrugged.

"Hah, the great crusader. You reporters have such a high opinion of yourselves." Abe smiled cynically and shook his head.

Risa's face turned red. "And you jocks think you're all that! Don't think you need my help? Fine, forget it." She turned and stomped out the door, leaving Abe to ponder whether the truce still held.

Some time later, the doorbell sounded again. Abe's younger brother Shun, home from practice, answered the door although it was still open. "Oh My God! It's Tajima!" He enthusiastically ushered in Tajima and Sakaeguchi, with Mihashi cowering behind them.

The Nishiura boys talked about Abe's knee injury and how he was going to be out of commission for a month. Tajima looked more upset than Mihashi. "It's too stressful being a catcher. I can't concentrate on my hitting, but I'll do my best so you can fully recover. That's the most important thing. Then with you, we can win the fall tournament!" He added the last part, hoping to sound positive and cheer up the perpetually gloomy catcher.

But Abe wasn't thinking about missing the newcomer's tournament or the rehab exercises he had to do. He had something else on his mind. "Yeah, well, too bad about your date," Abe said, trying to fish for details.

"What do you mean?" asked Tajima.

"That reporter was here earlier. Wanted to get Takeshi Kurata in trouble. I told her to forget it. It was an accident. Anyway, didn't you ask out that reporter and she said something about going out with you only if we went to Koshien?" Abe shook his head at Tajima's naïveté.

"Oh, that." Tajima smiled broadly. "We're going to the Bijou game against Arc tomorrow."

"For a date? Why would you want to see those bastards again, much less take a girl to a baseball game as a first date?" Not that Abe had much experience in that area, but it seemed like common sense. Girls liked to do girly things like go shopping and eat cake in a cute frilly tearoom.

"It was Risa's suggestion. She wants to heckle them. Isn't she a great girl? Totally loves baseball!"

Abe thought how Risa didn't love baseball, she probably loved heckling. Since Abe ruined her plans to file suit against the Bijou catcher, this was probably plan B. "Heckle? Hah, that's great. I'd love to heckle them, but don't you think they'll recognize you? You can get in trouble for that."

"That's why I'm going to wear a disguise," Tajima explained. "Risa's going to do the heckling."

"How did you get her to change your mind about the date?" asked Sakaeguchi. "She doesn't look like the type to change her mind." '_She's scary_,' he added to himself. But if anyone could do it, it would be Tajima.

"You see, the trick is, since we lost, she feels sorry for me, so of course she'd be willing to out with me. I get a date whether we win or lose," Tajima explained. "It was all in the plan." He winked at his teammates.

Tajima's cool factor went up another ten notches, and in that moment, Abe realized that Tajima was much smarter than he looked and wasn't just a baseball genius. He would be a riival in other areas as well.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Don't really know what happened to Bijou after their game with Nishiura._


	21. Tajima's Date

_Author's Note: Sorry for the long hiatus. Had part of this written a year ago. Fixed it up best I could._

**Tajima's Date**

The next day was another rest day for Abe. He was already bored and feeling restless, especially after spending all night in the same chair, trying to sleep with his leg propped up, and getting up only to use the bathroom. Before leaving with his brother, his mother had left him plenty of snacks and drinks within reach, but strangely he had no appetite. He stared blankly at the television screen.

The tournament game between Bijou Dai Sayama and Ranzan, who had beaten Ichinodaifuzoku the day before, was to be televised that afternoon, but he did not feel like just sitting around to watch another game on the TV. The game he was watching now depressed him enough. He wanted to be there at the stadium, or at training with his teammates, or anywhere else, but he couldn't, because of his stupid injured knee. Abe thought about asking his parents to take him, but he knew they'd insist that he rest. '_A cab… no that's too expensive...' _

"Ugh!" Abe shouted in frustration at no one in particular, banging his fist on the chair's armrest, making a sizable dent.

"Hey, what's the matter?" a voice called from the front door.

Abe looked up to see Hanai and Izumi entering the room. "Nothing," growled Abe. "Nothing but a damned knee and no baseball and no moving around. Nothing!"

Izumii cocked his head at his bad tempered teammate. "We have something to cheer you up."

Abe just glared at them disinterestedly. He very much doubted they could do anything in that regard and neither one held anything in his hands. '_It would have been nice if they had brought some food_,' Abe thought.

Hanai approached the television and turned it off. "You know we had that team meeting and we decided to aim for Koushien. All the way!"

Abe nodded mutely. _'Naïve idiots,_' he thought, but he said, "Yeah. We'll get there next year."

"Coach gave us the afternoon off, but we're going to the Bijou-Ranzan game. My mom's giving a couple of us a lift. You want to come?" asked his team captain.

Abe almost leaped out of his chair. "Of course!" he said in his overly loud voice. "I'm going stir crazy here. Just hand me those crutches."

As Izumi helped Abe to the car, the always conscientious Hanai hastened to scribble a note to let Abe's parents know their son had left with them to see the game, officiously signing it with his full name and title (Hanai Azusa, Captain of the Nishiura baseball Club).

Abe sat in the back with his crutches and Izumi, while Hanai sat in front with his mother. Hanai-san complained about the rough Bijou team during the entire drive over to the stadium. "Those kids have no sense of fair play!" she said for the hundredth time.

Abe really, really wanted to tell her shut up, but she looked like the type to even beat up kids not her own, so he had the sense to say nothing. Instead, he tried to think of something to say to Izumi. Something about baseball, and Tajima, but not about that reporter, but still something to find out…

It was Izumi who turned to him and said, "You know Tajima's on a date with that reporter. We should try to sit nearby and… spy on them, or blow spitballs." He grinned at Abe mischievously.

Abe shook his head. "Who cares what they do. We're there for scouting purposes. Anything non-related to baseball is a waste of out time," he said dismissively. Abe looked out the car window, hoping Izumi wouldn't see his flushed face.

Izumi shrugged and went back to thinking what a jerk Abe was and maybe having a bum knee would be good for him. Maybe he'd learn some patience and not take things, or people, for granted, like Mihashi.

They were early and the morning game had just ended. A crowd was leaving the stadium as another jostled to enter. The boys spied Tajima with Risa, sitting in the front row by the first baseline near the batter's box. There were no seats near them so the boys settled on seats a few rows behind them. The stadium filled up quickly but they could still see their teammate up front.

It turned out that Tajima's idea of a disguise was simply a generic baseball cap, sunglasses, and a white T-shirt with Ranzan written on it with a black marker. Anyone could have recognized him by his freckled nose. Risa donned the same disguise, her hair tucked under her cap, but she added large dangly earrings, and very red lipstick with matching fingernail polish. Abe would not have recognized her except for the loud, cold, criticizing voice.

"Go Ranzan! Crush those Bijou bastards! They're nothing but a bunch of lying, cheating, roughnecks, not fit to dig the dirt from your shoes!" she yelled.

"Yeah!" Tajima shouted, jumping up and waving a banner for Ranzan.

The game soon started, but instead of watching the action on the field, Abe and his two friends watched Tajima with envy. Hanai and Izumi not so much because he was with Risa, but because he was with a girl. The baseball club had kept them all so busy, there was no time for any kind of social life outside of hanging out with the team members. A moment of doubt crossed their minds. Trading their social life for torturous training - was it worth? Was reaching for Koshien worth the cost? But when they saw the players run onto the field, they found their feelings of envy increase tenfold. Yes, they wanted to be on that field more than any girl. It was a sacrifice they were willing to make. There would be time for dating later on. And playing baseball was so much simpler than being played by a girl. Still, it would be even better to have an understanding baseball fan by your side. But one that was not so judgmental. They listed in consternation as Risa continued to hurl insults throughout the game.

_You throw like my great grandmother, and she's dead!_

_That bat too heavy for you? Even with the cork?_

_My two year old sister can hit the ball harder than that. You need your diapers changed?_

_Hey ugly! Break any mirrors lately?_

_Hey butterfingers, got some bread?_

_The girls' softball team's hiring!_

_You qualify for a seeing eye dog!_

_Eighth batter! You know you're the worst!_

_Your dealer called, he's out of meth!_

_Want a sandwich to go with your steroids?_

_Goat's go blaah!_

_One hit wonder!_

_Four-eyes and you still can't see!_

_You need a smaller cup size!_

_Heard your parents are getting divorced! Guess what? It IS your fault!_

_Heard your girlfriend dumped you! Guess her taste improved!_

_I hear you've been lingering in the shower a bit tooooo long!_

Risa had done her research on the Bijou players. She had sat with the Bijou parents and classmates in other games and her brother had a wealth of gossip. The Bijou players managed to ignore most of her taunts, but a few hit too close to home. A number of the players became visibly rattled and even glared in her direction. Every time a player glared at her, Risa high fived Tajima with both hands. As the game progressed, the heckling content got even worse.

Abe, Hanai, and Izumi watched and listened to the girl with a mix of shock and awe.

"I'm glad she's on our side... sort of on our side," said Izumi, still smarting over the time Risa questioned his sexual preference.

"Yeah, she got some good ones, but who comes up with that stuff? Sitting around, thinking of insults - that girl's seriously weird." But Abe was secretly impressed. He wished he could be the one next to her, heckling the Bijou team into a loss against Ranzan. As talented and smart as Tajima was about baseball, he had no talent for heckling. Abe was sure he'd be better at it than Tajima.

"Insulting people does seem to be her hobby," Hanai observed. "Oh oh, look, the umpire's giving her a warning…Ah! She can get kicked out for that." Risa had just given the umpire the finger behind his back. Luckily for her, he didn't see it.

At that moment Abe had a revelation: '_That's the girl for me.' _

_Author's Notes: Most of the insults I came up with myself, but a few I found on the internet with a search on baseball insults. IMHO mine are better. Next up, training camp._


End file.
